An original Shmup with decent execution and good fun.
Pyschosis takes place in the literal Pyschosis of the main character; the identity is entirely up to you and it could very well BE you. The main character (aka: possibly you) has been cursed to have his or her mind messed with by an ancient demon called Ugar. Ugar plans to use your head as his personal breeding ground or hang-out place, but at the very cost of your personality and schema. Using what little imagination the main character has left, he/she/you conjures up a strange looking ship/jet/plane/thing to do battle with Ugar and to rid him from your mind.
Pyschosis is in many ways an R-Type clone:
You possess a blue bubble-domed white ship and you're aided by all sides with circular, unimaginative, but helpful 'Options' that serve as extra guns and your primary enemy is a Checkpoint system. Clones however can inventively deviate from their original source and Psychosis does just that:
While your ship remains the same strange rotating, Speed-Up gargling thing it is, it possess some very nifty weapons that cover three types of fighting strategies: You get the aggressive, straight firing Wave weapon, the close-quarters Barrier defense weapon and a weapon that fires beams diagonally.
Your Options can be rotated to face either side of the ship utilizing either one of the three weapons to your advantage: you can defend yourself from vertical attacks with the Barrier weapon or shower a little Wave shot to pesky ground forces! You can also widen certain weapon attacks by moving backwards or forwards which will either open or close the Options.
The Checkpoint system however... well, it's a checkpoint system, but unlike most of them, this one makes sense: you're trying to force a demon out of your head, so naturally his only defense is to throw you back a point.
Gameplay-wise, Pyschosis plays quite well. Your enemies (checkpoint system aside) are a decent challenge and most of them have different and surprising attacks. There's the usual nitpicks of the Speed-Up icons feeling tacked on and forcing you into suicide more than enhancing strategy. With the Checkpoint system in mind there are some attacks that do nothing but serve to irritate you like the falling bricks in level 4. Beyond that though, the hit detection is dead-on and the game still possess a pick-up and play atmosphere with a fair challenge unlike some Shmups where they're labeled 'PROFESSIONALS ONLY.'
While it never bothered me much, I figure I might as well mention that the game is a bit short for (if you're not messing up) due to the game having five levels instead of the standard six levels. I know it bothers some Shmuppers when there's only five levels to a Shmup, but for me it only feels like a lack of designer creativity on an acceptable level.
Design-wise, Psychosis could be one of the most colorful Shmups I've seen on the TG16 as the game uses a wide variety of colors. The environments are all uniquely varied and original. One of the levels that stands out for me is the second level where you go around blasting creatures disguised as figures of Japanese mythology. There are some moments of Sprite-Break-Up in the game, but it's the good kind mostly: the kind of Sprite Break-Up that occurs when a boss blows up and not the kind that shows up randomly to mask enemy shots and sometimes your ship.
The enemies are also colorful and uniquely designed critters, almost to the point where I don't want kill them for their colorful uniqueness. If anything, I can't help but wonder why they made the big enemies and the boss of level 4 to look so goofy: Fighting a giant Shiva is cool, but why does she have a huge smile on her face? And why the jumping Ganesh? I'll admit it's a unique enemy design, but come on, I like Ganesh!!
The game's audio ain't too bad either. The sound effects are all varied and match the majority of the actions on the screen and it was hard to note a moment where the sound beat-out the music.
Speaking of which, the music seems to match the setting in that kooky, other-worldly, insane feeling where it feels like you're going insane... but in a fun way. The music in level 4 got a little annoying after awhile, but beyond that the soundtrack deserves some recognition for matching the setting.
All in all, this is definitely a game to recommend and to get. Not just because of its uniqueness and originality, but because it's uniqueness and originality is sided at all sides by challenging fun.