Game of the Day - Mystic Riders

Mystic Riders (MR) is a crapload like Cotton (the game - not the Q-Tips material) - and it's loads of horizontal shooting fun.

Mystic Riders is a witch-themed, great-looking game that uses magic along with more traditional firepower.  You ride a broom (just like my mother) that you can use in various ways to attack.  There are only two buttons, one is to fire your main weapon and the other is to toss the broom - but charge shots and different combo/special attacks add to the variety.  One of the very nice things about throwing the broom is something that I wish was in other games... the broom throws the opposite of the direction you are moving.  This is extremely helpful as it is usually the case that you are moving away from some attacking enemy, and therefore the broom is thrown directly backwards in your path, usually right at them.  There are many omni-shooter and horz-shooter games where you always shoot the direction you are facing or moving, which can make it VERY difficult to attack when you are avoiding the enemy or their fire.  This little change is a drastic help in fighting the evil hordes.

There are two kinds of magic you can procure in the game and they are both utilized by the charging of a shot (hold down button 1).  Each form of magic can be powered-up by collecting crap and therefore more devastating when unleashed.

There are also a couple of tricks with the broom, if you move the joystick a certain way when throwing it, you get a kind of "Broom-nado".  Additionally, if you land and are standing on hard ground, you can shoot in any direction with the broom.

As far as I'm concerned, the best thing about all Irem games (which this is one) is the consistently great graphics.  MR does a great job with this.  Great color, big enemies, inventive use of the theme - just look at the pics.  It's a cornucopia (that's right, cornucopia) of great visuals.  Demons with sickles, giant snakes, levels that scroll in every direction (bigger than one screen high), reapers and more all add to the fun

So crank it up and decide witch way to fly (see what I did there?).