* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The boss theme, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISIqssA8ObA "One More Step to Ambition"]]. You know you're up against a formidable enemy when the stage's disco music is swapped out for ''heavy metal''.
* FanNickname: The cyborgs are commonly referred to by players as "discomen".
* GoodBadBugs:
** In certain emulators, a glitch involving resetting the game allows you to initialize all high scores to zero. Perfect if you keep track of your scores, because the lowest default high score of 1.2 million can take weeks of practice to attain. This is no longer necessary in the ''[=M2STG=]'' edition due to having a score counter gadget.
** There is a bug with the true final boss that has your end of stage invincibility not wearing off until you bomb. Most players won't realize it due to bombing on reflex. [[ObviousRulePatch This is removed in non-custom modes]] in the ''[=M2STG=]'' version.
* HighTierScrappy: In high score competitions that don't segregate ship types, the {{Secret Character}}s Uo (if playing on 1P) and Poko (2P) are hated by many players. They have the fastest movement of any ship in the game, outpacing even the regular ships at speed 4 (the maximum for those ships), can change their shot spread by pressing the bomb button, and they don't follow the PowerUp system, so they always gain +5 to their ScoreMultiplier from picking up power-up tokens, while the regular ships only get that benefit when they're at max power already. On top of all this, they make a distinct "meow" sound any time any directional input is performed, which can get old real fast, although the ''[=M2 ShotTriggers=]'' release allows this sound to be turned off. Their only real drawbacks are that [[TooFastToStop their high speed might make them unpalatable to players who can't quite muster precise movements]] and they don't have bombs, but even then, they still outscore the regular ships since bombs have no direct scoring benefit (outside of Fever Arrange, anyway), only providing an indirect one by freezing on-screen cyborgs to prevent them from leaving the screen, but Uo's and Poko's SuperSpeed allows them to make up for that by quickly sweeping the screen for cyborgs. Thus, if you're playing for score in an environment where scores are not separated by ship, you ''have'' to abandon the game's signature ship customization mechanic and use Uo or Poko, or else you're effectively handicapping yourself.
* LowTierLetdown: The Type-A ship isn't liked by many players. It has a narrow shot with its side shots firing in parallel with the main shot -- in comparison to Type-B, which [[SpreadShot has its side shots fire at about 30-degree angles]], and Type-C with its 60-degree side shots -- and in many shmups that have multiple ship types, the "narrow shot" type usually has faster speed to compensate. However, since you can choose your ship speed independent of your shot type, thus allowing Type-B and -C to have fast movement and wide shot at the same time, this doesn't make Type-A particularly useful. Even though its narrow shot works best out of the three on bosses, the game gives power-shot options (which, like speed, are chosen independently of ship) that are just as effective on bosses, if not more, giving Type-A no specialization as a result. Choosing to use Type-A is effectively a SelfImposedChallenge that nobody really likes to do.
* PolishedPort: The ''Creator/{{M2}} [=ShotTriggers=]'' port for [=PS4=] and Xbox One. It's a perfect port of the original and also features a number of useful real-time widgets (the most notable one being a total score counter, which was absent in the original), extra soundtracks (a remastered version of the original, a VIP Arrange, and an [[{{Retraux}} FM arrange]]), and a new ArrangeMode.
* ScrappyMechanic:
** This game never shows your total score during gameplay; it's only shown at the end of each stage, as well as after getting a high score and ending your game, which wouldn't be as big of a problem if the lowest default high score wasn't difficult to obtain for new players, moreso if you're playing on a public cabinet where all the scores are relatively high. This caused a huge problem in the final week of STGT 2010[[note]]STGT being an annual score attack tournament on Shmups Forum, one of the largest in the English-speaking shmups community[[/note]] where many players who couldn't get on the high score table either manually calculated their scores by hand or [[RageQuit simply didn't bother to submit scores]]. This was fixed in the ''M2 [=ShotTriggers=]'' port, which does allow you to add a total score counter as one of the side widget options.
** The lack of [[OneUp 1-ups]] in this game. Most CAVE games give you at least three extra lives (one that's item based and requires meeting a specific condition for it to appear, and the other two through [[Every10000Points point thresholds]]), but this one only gives you a ''single'' extra life, when you collect 2,000 cyborgs, a feat that can likely take until stage 4. This can make dying in this game signficiantly more punishing than it typically is in a CAVE game, [[ItsHardSoItSucks to the frustration of some players]]. Thankfully the M2 port's [[ArrangeMode Fever arrange]] is more generous with extra lives, giving you one at the end of every boss fight, and its Custom mode allows you to tweak the extra life settings.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Its soundtrack being all disco music, it includes pastiches of some well known 1970's disco music hits.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOXIDqkCXaY "Dancing Bomber"]], the theme of the first level, is an obvious ripoff of "Staying Alive" by The Bee Gees.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xss2CZv5QTM "Hello Mr. Cyborg"]], from the second level, is very similar to "Boogie Wonderland" by Music/EarthWindAndFire, with some parts of "Night Fever" by The Bee Gees thrown in.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO3MeAb9kcw "Barofever"]], the theme of the third level, is a mashup of pastiches of "You Should Be Dancing" by Music/TheBeeGees and "Hot Stuff" by Music/DonnaSummer.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhnXjcvRWQQ "Soul Supermarket"]], the theme of the fourth level, sounds vaguely like "The Hustle" by Van [=McCoy=].