Gaiares

Gaiares is a horizontal-scrolling shoot em' up released for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis in 1990. The game bears a striking mechanic similarity to that of the R-Type series, alongside those of other well-known Shoot Em' Ups such as Gradius and Thunder Force, all of which it was trying to compete against.

In the year 3000, the Earth has become a toxic and radioactive dump, leaving the planet rendered as an uninhabitable and polluted wasteland and driving the humans to near-extinction. The space pirates Gulfer, led by the evil Queen ZZ Badnusty, plan to harvest the pollution to create weapons of mass destruction.