Play Hellfire Online

Hellfire on the Sega Genesis is one of those shooters that sticks with you—mostly because of how weirdly flexible your shots are. You pilot the CNCS1, a ship that can fire in eight directions, which sounds like a gimmick until you realize how much it changes the game. Most enemies expect you to just blast forward, but here, you can hit them from behind, above, or even at a diagonal. The four-way diagonal shot in particular feels like cheating sometimes, especially when you sneak past a turret and pick it off from an angle it can’t even fire back at.

It’s got that classic 90s shooter vibe—power-ups (P for weapon upgrades, S for speed, B for bombs), screen-filling bosses, and a story about some robot dictator trying to drown the galaxy in a space fog called the Black Nebula. The bomb is your panic button, wiping out everything on screen when things get too chaotic. And they will get chaotic. The levels throw waves of enemies at you, but the real challenge is figuring out which shot direction gives you the edge without leaving you exposed. It’s not the hardest shooter out there, but it’s got enough clever twists to keep you coming back.

If you’ve played a lot of horizontal shooters, Hellfire’s directional firing makes it feel fresh even now. Just don’t get too comfortable—Super Mech’s forces don’t play fair.