* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''ESCHATOS'' is packed to the brim with catchy and awesome FM synth music by Yousuke Yasui, the original soundtrack can be seen as a love letter to the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis system.
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Stage 3 is [[LevelInBossClothing mostly spent fighting a large space station]], and when you destroy its second phase it goes up in a very long (35-second) explosion, so one might think (other than its lifebar not being fully red yet) it's about to go down... except it keeps unleashing wave after wave of enemies as the destructive chain reaction plays out. Then the core of the exploding station separates and ''then'' the boss music plays, almost as if the intense skirmish with the station leading up to this moment was just a ''warm-up''; alternatively, the boss music is something of a NearVictoryFanfare in this case, as the boss is almost dead at this point.
* PolishedPort: The PC version features higher resolution visuals and many graphical options available right from the start whereas the Xbox 360 version required playing through the game to unlock them. The [=PlayStation=] 4 and Nintendo Switch remasters would go on to improve the visuals even further along with higher quality music and faster loading loading times than the previous versions.
* ScrappyMechanic:
** Bomb items in Advanced mode. In Original, there's almost no bad time to pick them up, but in Advanced, getting a bomb hurts your multiplier and reduces your shot power (although since shield capacity is inversely proportional to shot power in this game, you at least get some shield capacity back).
** The ScoreMultiplier system isn't well-liked. As you destroy enemy waves, it increments one at a time. If you let enemies escpape, your multiplier drops by 1 ''per every single enemy''. If you die, causing a lot of enemies to escape, this means that you can potentially go from x20 to x1 in the blink of an eye. The only saving graces are that [[HardModePerks multiplier requires fewer waves to incrase on higher difficulties, and on Advanced, every power-up you have raises your minimum multiplier by one]].
* ThatOneLevel: Stage 3 (Areas 12 through 15) is fairly long, features [[LevelInBossClothing multiple segments throughout the stage where you fight the boss]], has a tricky segment involving spinning crystals, and unlike the rest of the game, the low enemy density makes it likely [[DroughtLevelOfDoom you won't get even a single extend]], so coming into this stage with no lives left is going to be a bad time. It's about as equally rough for scoring, especially for 12 and 13 - the latter two areas have a few popcorn waves that can grant a little multiplier.
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