Ironclad

Ironclad, known in Japan as Choutetsu Brinkin'ger (超銖ブリキンガー Ultimate Brikinger) is a Shoot 'em Up game released in 1996 by Saurus for the Neo Geo CD. It was later ported to the Wii Virtual Console.

Story
The peaceful Chop Kingdom is suddenly facing a invasion from the forces of the Iron Mask Republic. The Kingdom's resistance force develops a set of new high tech ships which come equipped with the autonomous Ironclad Robot for support. The ships are then sent to fight back the invaders.

Gameplay
Ironclad is a horizontally scoring shooter where the player can choose between three different ships. There are no lives, as the player has a life meter which can be replenished or increased by picking up the corresponding items. When the life meter is completely depleted, it's game over. The player can also pick up items to equip different weapons and power up the ship's guns. Unique to this game is that the player's ship won't receive damage when colliding to terrain or enemies, only being damaged by the enemies' attacks.

The main mechanic of the game involves the "Robot", which works similarly to the force pod in the R-Type games. The A button is used for shooting, and holding it will charge the Robot's power up to three levels. When the button is released, the Robot is tossed at the enemies, causing high damage. The B button is used to detach the Robot or reattach it to the main ship. Holding A and pressing B while detached will recall the Robot faster. While the robot is detached, it will shoot by itself. While the Robot is attached to the main ship, it will block enemy shots but detach automatically after taking enough damage. The C button will use a screen-clearing bomb which will consume your equipped weapons. The bomb is stronger if you have both a robot and ship weapon to consume, and cannot be used if weaponless.

The game features branching paths, much like in the Darius games. After clearing a stage, the player can choose between two different stages to play next. There are five different final stages, all but one ending with facing Grim, the villain introduced in stage 1, as the final boss. Each of them will lead to a different ending, with the game having five in total.

There are power-ups, but they only increase the power of your ship's weapon while the Robot is detached. Bosses, minibosses and some other notable enemies, such as the enemy Ironclad Robots, drop additional items such as power-ups, life increases, and even life-bar extensions if defeated with the correct equipped weapons, and/or charged attacks. This, combined with the lack of power levels for equipped weapons, adds a strategic element to swapping them often.

Ships

 * Bristol mk.0
 * Type: Fighter
 * Speed: 3
 * Shot: 2
 * Power: 3
 * Fokker G.VII
 * Type: Sniper
 * Speed: 4
 * Shot: 4
 * Power: 2
 * Rogozarski 2
 * Type: Bomber
 * Speed: 2
 * Shot: 3
 * Power: 4

Weapons

 * L-Arm: Equips weapons to the main ship while the Robot is attached, and changes its shots while detached.
 * Nothing: Shoots weak pellets in a forward spread. While detached, the Robot shoots regular shots vertically up and down.
 * Blue (beam icon): Shots a penetrating frontal beam. While detached, the Robot shoots two small penetrating beams diagonally backwards.
 * Green (missile icon): Shots homing missiles that can hit grounded targets. While detached, the Robot shoots these missiles backwards at a slower pace.
 * Red (flame icon): Releases powerful close-ranged fire blasts around the ship. While detached, the Robot wields a frontal flamethrower.
 * R-Arm: Equips weapons to the Robot, used for charged attacks.
 * Nothing: The robot is launched and rams into an enemy. Range increases with charge level.
 * Green (drill icon): The Robot is launched in a forward drill attack. Range increases with charge level, however the weapon is stronger at level 2 and strongest at level 1 charge (due to the Robot spending more time drilling enemies instead of passing through them).
 * Purple (saw icon): The Robot shoots saws across the screen and slashes any enemies in front of it. This weapon has deceptively wide vertical range.
 * Red (mace icon): The Robot spins spiked maces around itself. This weapon is weaker than the others, but blocks enemy fire for an extended duration.

Trivia

 * Ironclad was originally developed for the Neo Geo MVS system, however this version was cancelled and the game would later be released for the Neo Geo CD console. The prototype MVS rom was used for the Wii Virtual Console port.