Whip Rush (1990, Mega Drive)

Whip Rush is a horizontally scrolling shoot'em up developed by Vic Tokai and published by Sega (in Japan) and Renovation Products (in North America).

The story is set in the 22nd century. Mankind has drained every planet in the Solar System of its natural resources, and the system is overpopulated. So three Alpha-type robotic spaceships are sent on a mission to find similar planets to colonize. After five years, the pilots reported finding a similar planet they learned was called Voltegas (Voltegeus in the US version), but upon approach, their transmission was lost and the ships never re-established contact. A few days later an alien ship appears near Mars and starts attacking Earth. It is now up to Earth's smallest but most powerful spaceship, the Whip Rush, to stop the invasion and discover the fate of the missing colony ships.

While the game is scrolling horizontally most of the time, there are some vertical passages in some of the levels. There are four types of weapons, which can be upgraded by collecting the same weapon several times. If you get hit by a shot, you loose your weapon and get degraded to the standard shot, if you had collected a weapon before. Some weapons can have different configurations which can be changed with button. It also possible to alter the speed of your ship.