In the early 90's, schmups were still king in Japan. Annual shooting competitions; Summer Carnivals, were held to allow the best shoot-em-up players to compete for the highest rankings. It was in the 2nd Shooting Competition that Naxat Soft released RECCA ("Raging Fire") for the Famicom, a title which pushes our favorite 8-bit system, and players to their limits. Frenetic shooting action. Dozens of enemies on-screen with barely any slowdown. Huge, multi-stage Boss battles. Special effects thought possible only on 16-bit and an awesome soundtrack.

The gameplay itself is deceptively straightforward. Your ship starts out with a Vulcan shot (B) and chargeable energy blast (A). Shooting waves of enemies will unleash either a Blue or Red shield. Blank Blue shields are extra points, but the ones that cycle through letters will determine which weapon you get when you grab it. Vulcan, Blaster, Homing, Laser and Five Way shots are available. Collecting more Blue shields of the same type will power up you weapon (up to 3 levels max). Red shields will dock 2 pods next to your ship, which provide resistance to weaker bullets and will also change characteristics based on the letter displayed on the shield when you grab it. The pods can fire Forward, Back, Rotate, dock at right angles to ship movement with Counter, or Smart auto block.

Your energy blast especially comes into play during massive Boss battles. Charging the blast will shield you from weaker bullets from the front, but not heavy lasers, missiles or collisions. Releasing the blast when it's fully charged will provide temporary invicibility (except for collisions and super heavy enemy weapons) as the blast damages all enemies on screen. Lastly, your ship's speed is controlled by Select. Normally, leaving the speed on the default 2 bars is ideal, but remember to turn it down to be more precise in Boss battles with tight movement.

In addition to the Normal game, there are Score and Time Attack modes where hard-core players compete. Score Attack challenges you to get the most points within a 2-minute limit, or until your lives run out, whichever comes first. Time Attack challenges you to hit 100,000 points within 5-minutes or less. The stages (and music) for these modes are also laid out differently than the Normal mode to allow maximum scoring opportunities for the best players.

The essence of any great schmup is it's ability to test the ingenuity and pure stamina of any player. In that aspect, Summer Carnival `92 - RECCA, can stand up to the best shooters on any system. Also, being released mainly in conjunction with the Summer Carnival competition makes it an extremely rare title, but one worth hunting down. Pick up a NEX to play it on and see if you can survive the Raging Fire.