Fixeight

Fixeight is a run-and-gun Arcade Game made by Toaplan in 1992. It is the sequel to Out Zone.

The plot is rather simple: your character is sent to an alien planet to destroy it.

As a sequel to Out Zone, Fixeight fixes many of the problems that its prequel had. The main gimmick of the game are the eight unique characters, each of which have different weapons in their arsenal.

Tropes used in Fixeight include:

Attack Drone: Some characters get this for their attacks.
Badass Automaton: GX 026.
Badass Princess: Lucy Pamela, who is the princess of Britain.
Bait and Switch Boss: The third boss is what appears to be some kind of ship... which gets shot into two by the real boss' laser cannon.
Bittersweet Ending: While most of the characters get happy endings, some of them do not. Agatha manages to have children, but gets killed by a slum boy.
Boss Arena Urgency: The fourth boss. The floor will crumble apart in a sequence, and you have to avoid falling into the pits. The good news is that the floor will reappear again shortly.
Breath Weapon: Vistario's weapon of choice.
Charged Attack: One of Vistario's moves. It takes about a second to for him to inhale and charge, and it does a crazy amount of damage when released.
Divergent Character Evolution: And how! From one type of player in Out Zone, to eight different selectable characters in this game.
Doppelganger Attack: Ziguragi has this as his special weapon, which creates three ninja clones that follow him. They aim at enemies and fires rapid shurikens.
Frickin' Laser Beams: R Langelo uses these for his attacks. One of them is a Reflecting Laser.
Heel Face Turn: Vistario's ending shows that he was originally a Space Pirate who went around ransacking the galaxy.
Lizard Folk: Vistario.
Macross Missile Massacre: One of GX 026's attacks, as well as one of Agatha's attacks.
Ninja: H Ziguragi.
Ryu and Ken: Both Howard Young and Lucy Pamela share the same attacks. The differences are mostly cosmetic.
Spread Shot: Most of the characters have some form of this as one of their attacks.
Stalked by the Bell: Take too long to complete a level, and two spikeballs will come up from the bottom of the screen. They can be destroyed, but they will get you unless you are near the top.
Taking You with Me: Some enemies explode into deadly shots when defeated. On the second loop onwards, ALL enemies explode into suicide bullets if destroyed from afar.
Token Minority: Cull Horn.
Unexpected Shmup Level: You have to ride a hoverbike to fight two of the bosses. Not exactly unexpected, as the game already resembles a Shoot'Em Up.
Wolfpack Boss: The first boss has you fight against three flying machines. Each of them have different attacks.