As someone who sucks at shmups and finds the genre a bit intimidating, this was an awesome, beginner-friendly game! Mechanics are simple and intuitive with no bombs and just two attack buttons. Most of the gameplay revolves around using the wide or standard shot based on the current enemy patterns. Powerups are abundant and do not level, so you can switch almost at-will and aren't super penalized for deaths. The game is also pretty generous with 1ups, so I was able to 1cc normal and hard on my first attempts. The chain system is pretty addictive and gives you a lot of incentive to memorize enemy spawns and optimize runs. The visuals, music, and gameplay mechanics are a nice throwback to PC Engine/other early 90s shmups.

TL;DR play this ♥♥♥♥, it's solid and a great entry point to the shmup genre