Most people who owned this game probably did because it was the cheapest game in the store. I remember getting it as a gift from relatives in Scotland, and was very excited that I had a Sega-game that came from another country! Of course I didn't know it was a port of an arcade-game, and that it was actually quite a few years old when I got it in the early 90s.
Although it is in no way a fantastic game, it still feels and plays like one of those classic Sega Master-System games from the 80s that I like so much. There is something special and unique about those games made in Japan in the 80s that I feel European developers didn't quite manage to emulate with their 90s Master System-games. I think it's a combination of graphics and music, which are both stunning in this game. You see the title screen and hear this strange drum rythm, that I later have found to be very similar to King Crimson's "The Devil's Triangle" from 1970. Just listen! It's the exact same rythm! And then we have the "fanfare" when you start, and then the "overworld" music. All great!
Speaking about the "overworld" and "underworld". The only demo the game plays is actually from the "underworld", so I knew there had to be a different level than the one we play in when the game starts. I must have tried everything to get there, before I found out what I was supposed to do. The normal thing to do in order to finish a level is of course just to play until you reach the end, which isn't the case here. But how is a kid supposed to know this? And how is he supposed to know you have to shoot those star-looking enemies using the D-weapon? I've said it before and I'll say it again - those Japanese are crazy! But I guess it wasn't exactly impossible to figure out as I managed to do it, but then again, I like to think I was a pretty smart kid :)
And speaking about not reaching the end - once you finish the "underworld" and beat the boss (which looks pretty cool, by the way), you start again in level 1, although some of the enemies have changed. And so it goes on and on, forever. I think I reached level 16 or 17 once as a kid, just hoping the game would end, but of course it didn't. The game never ends, and you might wonder what is really happening in the "story". Where are we? Some strange alien planet in the future? Why are we forced to play the same levels over and over again? Are we trapped in some sort of time loop? Perhaps it's best not to put too much thought into this and just play the game instead. And it isn't such a bad game if you give it a chance. But perhaps you need to have grown up with it to appreciate it fully...