The game is set in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, thus providing an explanation for the concept of looping stages.
To back this theory up:- Stage 1-1 opens with an explosion.
- The final stage is numbered 0 rather than 7, and associated with the number of the next loop. Thus, Stage 0 of the first loop is numbered 2-0.
- When you kill the Final Boss, it explodes spectactularly. It is THE SAME EXPLOSION FORM STAGE 1.
- When the explosion goes off, Stage 2-1 begins. All of the enemies have the exact same formations and attacks, thus providing evidence that time is repeating. (What possibly contradicts this, however, is that enemies now fire suicide bullets.)
- However, when you defeat the boss again on Stage 3-0, Stage 3-1 does not start, but instead, the True Final Boss does. In fact, Stage 3-1 never happens, and the "MISSION COMPLETE" dialog shows up after the boss is defeated. The time loop seems to have been finally broken...
- ...unless you choose "Continue" from the title screen afterwards, causing the explosion to happen again and Stage 3-1 to start up. Or Stage n-1, where n is an odd integer greater than 1.
- It could be theorized that the enemies got progressively better throughout the loops. In that case, the very first loop may have been a perfectly acceptable target of It's Easy, So It Sucks!
Version 1.10 ending theories
After performing a complete run of the game (reach stage 3-0 and defeat the Final Boss), the player suddenly finds themselves in a biplane they've never seen before, flying through "The Real World" and being welcomed back by a human crowd as they land on a runway. Which of course raises many questions about the nature of the "world" the 14 stages are set in, what exactly the "real world" is, and why you're being welcomed home.- The player had a hypoxia event due to loss of cabin pressure, and the game's stages are all a fever dream. If the player kills the final boss, they come to their senses and descend the plane enough to regain oxygen. If not, they die for real.
- The events of the game are all a Lotus-Eater Machine implated by the enemy forces in the real world, trapping the player in a slumber they can only break by killing the final boss.
- The scene in the "real world" is actually that of a late 80s game, as the plane's weapons and movements are very similar to that of Sky Shark. The player was watching their friend play such a game and fell asleep, dreaming of the future of the shmup genre. The "real world" scene is the friend waking the player up after realizing they dozed off and were not given a chance to play, so the player is handed the controller to enjoy whatever remains of the game.
