This version has some pretty wild differences compared to its siblings. Right off the bat, you've got a title theme, something lacking from the Arcade and Genesis counterparts (there's other original music too, but it's mostly new arrangements of the System 24 original). Then, you've got the shift of less characters into something more akin to "classes," with 10 total. These classes are male if you're player 1, and female if you're player 2. They mirror the characters in the other versions aside from 2 standouts. The most obvious is the Ninja, a character class that has a bit in common with the fire warrior, but their caltrop traps last longer and cover more area (and obviously they look very different). The other is a tri-missile launcher class, which is kind of like Cyber from every other version who has a 5 missile spread attack, but instead there's only 3 missiles that are clustered close together and cause really good damage on bosses (Cyber was only really ever good for crowd control, and even then, he was so slow he was rarely actually useful). And you've also got obvious stuff like different level layouts and completely unique boss encounters in every Round [although Round 2's boss is somewhat similar, and Round 4's is very similar to the original's final boss, and Round 5's is somewhat similar to Round 4's from the Megadrive version, except they added missiles and made it about 100X harder). There's also a unique "era" in Round 5, which is like you're infiltrating the actual Gain Ground computer outside of the simulation, which is pretty cool on paper, but in practice isn't that much different from the "Near Future" theme of Round 4, which is the traditional final Round in the other versions.
Then something very subtle but important; the game allows you to skip to any stage you want within the first 3 rounds (but only within the respective round; if you advance from round 1 to round 2, you can no longer revisit stages from round 1, only round 2, and so on). This seems a little arbitrary at first; why wouldn't you just skip to later levels? Well, because that would mean you're not collecting any extra fighters, and once round 4 starts, you can no longer select the stage and the game continues as normal. In the same vein, you are allowed to replay levels within a round as many times as you like, which means you can farm fighters for as long as you like, which seems like it may trivialize the difficulty a bit, but keep in mind time overs still exist, so a poor player that grinds a bunch and then still fails to beat a boss level in time will still lose all of those farmed characters. Said timer is fairly strict.
I think in order to craft the best "balanced" set, I will reward a small achievement per level, so that players can't simply skip the beginning (outside of stage 10 per round, which are boss rounds). I may poll RA Discord and see if they'd rather these achievements be for no deaths, since the later levels themselves won't be protected against the level select code, but it's important to note that I believe the 4-10 and 5-10 bosses are literally impossible with no deaths, and even the world record speedrun dies plenty on them. With that in mind, there should also be a challenge cheevo for beating the game by skipping. Frankly, it's much harder to do that since you're only taking the weakest fighters into the last 2 rounds and 20 stages, and there's no more fighters to pick up there. With the limited continue system, it would still be quite tough to beat the game this way (which could definitely be a pretty fun challenge). The game's difficulty in general is on a crazy curve. The opening 3 bosses really aren't that big a deal, and with a bit of practice after recognizing their patterns, they can be easily beaten without losing any fighters/continues. However, Round 4 and 5's bosses are ridiculous, with homing missiles that as far as I can tell can't really be dodged with any amount of consistency. Round 4's boss is easier since it stays on a linear path, but the final boss in Round 5 runs around everywhere and shoots bullets and missiles and has a temporary weakpoint and is overall very difficult. It can be fairly easily beaten if you grind for fighters early in the game and just time your respawns with getting good damage in and abusing your i-frames, but beating it in a minimalist run would be very difficult. A no-continue run would be fairly easy with the grinding method, but practically impossible on a minimalist run (unless there's some sort of trick I'm overlooking on the round 4 and 5 bosses).
There is a [very easy] code [by holding Up + buttons 1 and 2 at the same time] that can allow the player to get a full set of all 10 fighters and then pick their Round and Stage, which would need to be protected against (easy enough; I've identified the memory flag for this screen, thankfully). Overall the game is both much easier or much harder than its counterparts, depending on how you play it, and I think that's the most interesting thing going for it.
Universal things to protect against: Demo mode (identified), 2 Player simultaneous play (I don't mind if a player wants to play as either Player 1 or 2 though...in fact, I encourage it with a couple achievements) (partially identified; I've found the location for both Player 1 and 2's active character, but not a universal indicator to use that shows they're both simultaneously active [unfortunately 00 is both the default "nothing" state as well as the state for playing as the Spear class, so I can't simply rely on that; I will try and track down score, and make it so that if both are active it disables achievements {if I can't find anything better}]).
Things to sometimes protect against: Special mode (identified)
Stage Achievements (none protected against level select nor Special Mode):
Baby Steps - Round 1-1 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-2 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-3 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-4 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-5 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-6 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-7 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-8 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 1-9 completed. 1
The Hopping Mad Demon - Round 1-10 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-1 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-2 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-3 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-4 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-5 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-6 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-7 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-8 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 2-9 completed. 1
Wizards & Warrior - Round 2-10 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-1 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-2 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-3 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-4 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-5 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-6 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-7 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-8 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 3-9 completed. 1
Tanks For The Memories - Round 3-10 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-1 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-2 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-3 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-4 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-5 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-6 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-7 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-8 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 4-9 completed. 1
Metal Fear - Round 4-10 completed. 1
Enter the Matrix - Round 5-1 completed. 2
Placeholder - Round 5-2 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-3 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-4 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-5 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-6 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-7 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-8 completed. 1
Placeholder - Round 5-9 completed. 1
Bullet Hell - Round 5-10 completed. 2
Round Achievements (protected against Special Mode, but not stage select):
Placeholder - * Round 1 The Primitive Age conquered. 1
Placeholder - * Round 2 The Middle Ages conquered. 1
Placeholder - * Round 3 The Modern Age conquered. 1
Placeholder - * Round 4 The Near Future conquered. 5
Placeholder - * Round 5 Gain Ground, The Final Era conquered. Congrats, you've conquered the Gain Ground system and restored peace. 10
Completion Achievements (protected against Special Mode):
Not to be Continued - * You conquered Gain Ground without using any continues. Great job! (Hint: you can replay a stage as many times as you like) 25
3 Guys Enter, 3 <= Guys Leave - * You conquered Gain Ground without saving a single survivor, even your own wounded. Impressive! (Hint: you don't have to beat every stage in Round 1-3) Continues allowed. 50
Character Challenges (not protected against anything, since they'll already be protected against any other character + death state):
Green Demon Challenge - You beat the Primitive Age Boss with only the Spear fighter without losing any fighters. 5
Bringing a Gun to a Magic Knife Fight - You beat the Middle Ages Boss with only the Gun fighter without losing any fighters. 5
Double Visions of Vulcan Raven - You beat the Modern Age Boss with only the Bomber fighter without losing any fighters. 5
Think of the Children! - You beat the Modern Age Boss with only the Archer fighter without losing any fighters AND you didn't destroy any of the small robots. 10
Placeholder - Something with Ninja
Placeholder - Something with Boomerang
But Their Soul Still Burns - As the Flamethrower fighter, defeat an enemy with your flamethrower attack AFTER being killed. 1
Dare you Enter my Magical Realm? - Something with Water Wizard
Placeholder - Something with Missile
Placeholder - Something with Tri-Missile
Other Achievements:
Glitch in the Matrix - You activated Special Mode (WARNING: this will disable certain achievements [they will be marked with * in their description]). To enter Special Mode, hold Up, then press buttons 1 and 2 at the same time. 0
Band of Brothers - * You collected at least 1 of every fighter as Player 1. 5
Femme Fatales - * You collected at least 1 of every fighter as Player 2. 5
A specific No-Kill get all 10 fighters across the exit challenge.
Clone Wars - * Collect 5 Missile fighters in a single game. 1
Bad Batch - * Collect 5 Tri-Missile fighters in a single game. 1
Never Leave a Soldier Behind! - * Rescue any fighter. 1
Sometimes Leave a Soldier Behind... - * Experience a time over where at least one fighter crossed the Exit. 1
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