User:Radish Pancake/exampage2

GG Aleste II (GGアレスタⅡ) or GG Aleste II: Lance Bird is a shoot-em-up vertical scrolling video game released on October 10, 1993 for the Sega Game Gear system. It is the direct sequel to GG Aleste and directly precedes GG Aleste III in Compile's Aleste series.

In 1994 it was rebranded and re-released as Power Strike II outside of Japan also for the Sega Game Gear System. It is not to be confused with, and is unrelated to the game Power Strike II (Master System Game). It was later re-released in December 2020 in part of a compilation titled Aleste Collection.

Plot
The story takes place in 2070. Earth is protected by a set of armored defensive satellites. An unknown object has attached itself to the largest of these satellites, named AL-45 Algo, similar in size to the Moon, and taken control of it. Pilot Alice Waizen is testing the prototype GG Aleste Model II "Lance Bird" ship when she is alerted to this threat and flies off to stop it.

""The enemy is planning a major attack on our solar system. You are our best pilot! You must lead the counterattack! Strike now!""

Gameplay
Gameplay remains unchanged from GG Aleste, however it added additional gameplay customization and an option to choose which sub-weapon to start the game with. There are six stages and three bosses after stages one, five, and six. There is a bonus stage after stage two and stage five. There are four levels of difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Mania) and eight speed level options to choose from.

The player controls Alice who is piloting the ship called the VF-2012LB GG Aleste II, codenamed Lance Bird. There are 4 available main weapon options for the player to choose from, which is only possible to change through collecting Item Pick-Ups during gameplay. The ship moves by pressing the D-pad and launches attacks upon pressing the "1" button, which can be held down to continuously launch attacks. During gameplay, the standard weapon can be upgraded, up to four levels, by collecting Power Chips. The standard weapon may also be augmented, temporarily, by collecting Special Weapon Power-ups. These Special Weapons launch attacks simultaneously with the main weapon. The player is also able to stock screen-clearing bombs called G Strikes and may use them at any time. Additional G Strikes can be acquired through collecting Power Chips.

The Lance Bird has a Round field Generator that shields it from being hit by an enemy and once hit it is destroyed. The following sequential hit, while the shield is destroyed will result in the Lance Bird being destroyed, costing the player one "life" and also resulting in the player's weapons being downgraded one level upon losing one "life," the player will have to wait one moment for the ship to respawn. At certain point thresholds the player will gain an extra "life." The player begins the game with three "lives" (counter will display the number of "lives" remaining after "dying") and there will be a "game over" if the player runs out of "lives," however the player has unlimited continues.

Stages
There are six stages in which the story progresses.
 * 1) "Encounter" Space Plant: Alice arrives at a solar storage plant, encountering an unknown enemy.
 * 2) "Crisis" Ground Base: Alice returns to Earth and must defeat invading enemies.
 * 3) "City" Bionic City: The city "Grand Palace" has been invaded by enemies: Alice must defeat them.
 * 4) "Desert" Ancient Ruins: Enemies have invaded Egypt: Alice must defeat them.
 * 5) "Rush" Cyber Road: Alice travels towards the Argo and must defeat the enemies along the way.
 * 6) "Decisive Battle" Inter Argo: Alice has arrived inside the Argo and must defeat the final enemy.

Ship Weapons
The player's ship, Lance Bird has four available Main Weapon options.
 * Delta Form: is a sub-ship, that flys around the Lance Bird, potentially preventing the Lance Bird from taking damage. It periodically fires its own shot straight head from its location. Upgrading it will increase the number of sub-ships circling the Lance Bird to up to three in total.
 * Hammer Hawk: shoots two homing missiles, one to the left and the second to the right, diagonally outwards and then straight ahead, parallel to, but outside of the main shot. Upgrades increase number of missiles available at any given time up to eight in total.
 * Neo Napalm Gun: periodically shoots two napalm bombs, one to the left and the second to the right, diagonally and forwards from the Lance Bird that detonate outside of the main shot also a short distance away from the Lance Bird. Upgrades increase the number of bombs launched and increases explosion size which is increasing damage area.
 * Rising Masher: shoots two laser guns, straight ahead from an added green barrel to the left and right sides of the Lance Bird, parallel to and slightly overlapping the main shot. Upgrades increase the total number of lasers being fired at any given time up to four in total.

Items
During gameplay it is possible to collect items by flying over the item icons. Immediately upon collecting an item, the Lance Bird will temporarily not take damage if hit. The following is a list of some available items:

Ability-Related Items

 * Power Chip Carrier: Used to release Power Chips.
 * Power Chip: Can either upgrade the attack speed and power of the standard weapon or give the player additional G Strike by activating the Round Field Generator.

Weapon-Related Items

 * Special Weapon Power Chip: Upgrades the special weapon, up to four levels.
 * Special Weapon Carrier: Used to release a special weapon item, changing the current special weapon to the weapon indicated by the item being used.
 * Delta Form Item: Equips the special weapon Delta Form.
 * Hammer Hawk Item: Equips the special weapon Hammer Hawk.
 * Neo Napalm Gun Item: Equips the special weapon Neo Napalm Gun.
 * Rising Masher Item: Equips the special weapon Rising Masher.

"Life"-Related Items

 * 1-Up: Gives the player an extra life.

Development
Tanida, who became the chief developer of the compilation, had asked Hiroki Kodama to produce this work. Takumi Yamashita (TAKIN) was in charge of programming. It is speculated that the production of this work started before "Robo Aleste," however Kodama wanted Yamashita to take more time working on GG Aleste II before releasing it. Masanobu Tsukamoto did the sound design. Masamitsu Niitani was the producer, however he is credited as "Moo Nitani" in the ending credits.

Differences from GG Aleste
There are more effects than the previous work and the drawing method has changed to make the screen easier to view. This new drawing method changed the enemy bullets were changed to red and green to improve visibility from the possible distortion that commonly occurred in the crystal display of the Game Gear. The bosses were also drawn larger. The bonus stages were changed to pseudo 3D, including the use of parallax scrolling, also known as horizontal raster scrolling, in order to make the game more interesting.

Differences from GG Aleste III
There are no similaries in sound design from GG Aleste II and GG Aleste III.

Regional Differences
Due to name differences, GG Aleste II, in Japan, and Power Strike II in the European version, the start screen of the Japanese version included the words "Lance Bird." The Japanese version includes a male protagonist, while the European version has a female protagonist.

Aleste Series
Aleste was followed by several sequels:


 * GG Aleste II (Game Gear, 1993)
 * GG Aleste III (Game Gear Micro, 2020)
 * Aleste Branch (TBA 2022)
 * Senjin Aleste (Arcade, 2021)

Cancelled games

 * Dennin Aleste 2 (Mega-CD, cancelled)

Related GamesGG Aleste II follows GG Aleste and preceeds GG Aleste III. There are also similar games, some of which various Aleste entries are based on; for example, Gunhed would inspire Super Aleste on the SNES. Zanac is the game that set down the template for the Aleste series and nearly all of Compile's future shooters.


 * Zanac (MSX, FDS, NES, 1986)
 * The Guardian Legend (NES, 1988)
 * Aleste (Sega, 1988)
 * Gunhed (PC Engine, 1989)
 * Gun-Nac (NES, 1990)
 * Seirei Senshi Spriggan (PC Engine CD, 1991)
 * Spriggan mark2: Re-Terraform Project (PC Engine CD, 1992)
 * Power Strike II (Master System, 1993)
 * Sylphia (PC Engine CD, 1993)
 * Spriggan Powered (Super Famicom, 1996)

Finally, it is known that around 1993, various employees left Compile and joined Raizing, where they made similar games including: In 2020, GG Aleste II was re-released in part of a compilation known as Aleste Collection.
 * Mahou Daisakusen (Arcade, 1993)
 * Shippu Mahou Daisakusen (Arcade, 1994)

Trivia

 * The Algo is similar in size to the Moon
 * Alice Waizen is the cousin of Ellinor Waizen, the protagonist of GG Aleste.
 * Masamitsu Niitani is credited as "Moo Niitani" in the ending credits.