Battle Garegga (バトルガレッガ) is a shoot-'em-up game released in arcades in 1996. It was later released exclusively in Japan for the Sega Saturn in 1998.
A major influence for this game was Taito's Gun Frontier. The pseudo sequels Armed Police Batrider and Battle Bakkraid stayed arcade exclusive.
At first the game appears like a standard world war shooting game, with power ups, bombs and Gradius-esque options.
is the shot, is for bombs and is change the option's formations.
Battle Garegga does away with many conventions of the genre. Enemy bullets are mostly brown and gray, making them hard to see. Screen filling bombs, usually an emergency weapon that should not be used as it lowers score, are encouraged to use as they can trigger specific events. e.g. bombing the castle in stage 2 releases a swarm of invincible birds. Attacking these nets extra score.
The game also has a strict "rank" system, with the game getting continuously harder, to the point of practically impossible to beat. The only reliable way to get the difficulty level back down is do die (whether on purpose or not).
A secret code gives access to extra ships from Raizing's Mahou Daisakusen, a game never ported to the Sega Saturn. These have the highest score potential in the game, and are counted as regular ships in the game's ranking table.
Depending on the button used to select a ship, slightly powered up versions (e.g. fast movement) can be selected.
Non of the above mentioned design decisions are documented in the gameplay or manual. So external sources have to be consulted to get a better understanding of the game's inner working. But Battle Garegga Handbook which is digitalized fanzine and developper's commentaly is included in this CD as an Easter egg.
is the shot, 
is for bombs and 
is change the option's formations.
