Metal Black

Metal Black is an arcade Shoot'Em Up released by Taito. It was orginially supposed to be a sequel to Darius II, but the developers decided to make it a separate game, though it is referred to as Project Gun Frontier 2.

Your ship is able to collect many small power-ups to build their weapon's power. Players could then unleash a large beam attack or a screen-filling energy burst that would drain their power level back to zero.

Story:

The year is 2042: Earth gets invaded by aliens intending to plunder Earth for inorganic materials. Both the aliens and the star they came from became known as "Nemesis". Earth's troops put up a fight, but were outmatched by the alien's powerful beam weapons. However, Earth's scientists managed to obtain the aliens' weaponry for Project Metal Black, which focused on developing at least 20000 human space craft with the same beam weaponry. The space craft was known as the CF-345 Black Fly.

Ten years after the invasion, Earth's peacefully surrenders to the aliens and promised to keep all of Earth's remaining forces from attacking: This applied to Project Metal Black which sealed the Black Fly space craft from the people. The Earth's natural resources were dying and the planet's population was thinning... it was only a matter of time until someone discovered Metal Black and struck back.

This game has examples of:

 * After the End: The aliens have managed to conquer Earth and diminished Earth's resources. Stage 1 (a wrecked city) shows the extent of the damage done.
 * Alien Invasion: And the aliens actually win and succeed. The story takes place after they manage to ravage most of Earth.
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The final boss Omega Zone definitely counts.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: Most of the bosses have a single weak spot which you have to hit in order to damage them.
 * Beam-O-War: You Smart Bomb fires out a giant beam laser when the button is held down. It is able to counter enemy shots, as well as the Wave Motion Gun that the bosses use.
 * Big Creepy-Crawlies: Daio & Gishiin, a mechanical dung beetle rolling a ball of scrap metal.
 * Charged Attack: Collect-type. You collect particles of "Newalone" energy to power up your beam cannons (which act as a Smart Bomb or a Wave Motion Gun).
 * Collision Damage: Against almost all enemies. However, averted by the Final Boss (only his core can kill you on contact, his body and tail are harmless).
 * Darker and Edgier: To Darius. The game was originally meant to be a sequel to Darius II, where the Belser Army had managed to destroy planet Darius.
 * Deadly Walls
 * Flying Seafood Special: Many of the bosses and enemies are based off aquatic animals. No surprise, considering that the game was originally meant to be a sequel to Darius
 * Gainax Ending: See Mind Screw below.
 * Giant Enemy Crab: The Mini Boss of stage 1 is a giant hermit crab with an aircraft carrier as its shell.
 * Mind Screw: The ending. If you can make any sense out of this, you're good. (more pictures here)
 * Power-Up: Only one kind, which look like three coloured particles stuck together. These things power up your regular weapon as well as charging up your Smart Bomb.
 * Segmented Serpent: Feeder, a giant mechanical Rat-tail fish. Attack its head in order to damage it.
 * Smart Bomb: Tapping and releasing your secondary attack button will allow you to shock the whole screen in energy.
 * That's No Moon: You see a moon in stage 2, shortly after leaving Earth. Turns out that you see the real moon after that, and the first "moon" is the egg of Feeder, the second boss.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Your Newalone energy cannon, reverse-engineered from the aliens' weaponry. It is able to destroy enemy shots too.
 * What Could Have Been: Metal Black was originally planned as Darius III, where Proco and Tiat would return from Sol after the events of Darius II, only to find Darius horribly ravaged by the Belser Army. Taito, however, ultimately decided that this was too bleak a scenario for the Darius series, and so gave Metal Black its own setting.