Guardic is a single screen shoot em up akin to Space Invaders, Galaga, and other early 80s shooters. You are a jet fighter trapped inside an enemy’s mothership and you have the freedom to move around in all 8 directions while blasting waves of enemy ships. What separates Guardic from other similar games is the power chip system. As you blast enemies you have to collect these yellow Pac-Man pellets which acts like currency. Before you start each level you pick your speed, the range of your gun, and other upgrades. All of which that consume the power chips you collect. Because of this you have to think and plan your upgrades before you waste all of your power chips. Also like in The Guardian Legend the entire game is in one big labyrinth.
After you complete a level you have the freedom to choose which path you take on your quest to destroy the enemy mothership’s core. There are dozens of levels in the game depending on which routes you take and the replay value is incredibly high. Unlike many of the EGGCONSOLE games on Switch which are usually JRPG centric this one is completely English friendly. No Japanese text whatsoever. It is an old school shoot em up. Like all EGGCONSOLE releases you can load and save states and there is a scanned manual from the original release of the game.
EGGCONSOLE Guardic will be available on the Nintendo Switch eshop on 11/21. It will cost $6.49 USD. If you are a fan of shmups or anything from Compile I highly recommend this awesome but obscure game! It is definitely one of the better early MSX titles.
David Medina is a hardcore gamer and Japanese import collector owning dozens of systems and games from Famicom to Nintendo Switch. He has an active YouTube channel called "The Karnov Jr Show" and posts retro gaming content there weekly showing off collections, random store tours, and gameplay clips.