**Midnight Resistance** is a sliding platform shooter where one or two players take on the roles of two commando brothers who have had their entire family kidnapped and need to be rescued. The game consists of nine large, eight-directional sliding levels made up of platforms, ledges, and ladders. These levels are filled with enemy soldiers and weapon placements, and occasionally armored vehicles. At the end of each stage, players must defeat a powerful enemy boss.
Players can rotate their weapons 360 degrees, allowing them to fire in all directions. Some enemies will drop a red key when eliminated; collecting these keys enables players to upgrade their weapons at the shop waiting at the end of each level. A maximum of six keys can be carried at once, and when a player loses a life, they drop all their weapons and keys. These can be retrieved at the start of the next life, provided they do not fall off the screen.
In addition to primary weapon upgrades, secondary weapons can also be purchased. These appear as backpacks attached to the player characters and fire when the player presses the joystick while shooting their primary weapons. Both primary and secondary weapons have a limited amount of ammunition, but more can be purchased from the end-of-level shops.
**Primary weapon upgrades:**
– Full Auto – Rapid-fire machine gun
– Fire – Flamethrower
– 3-Way – Fires projectiles in three directions simultaneously
– Shotgun – Fires powerful bullets
**Backpack weapon upgrades:**
– HM – Homing missiles that automatically target enemies
– Nitro – An eight-directional laser energy blast
– Shower – Eight missiles drop from the top of the screen
Other upgrades provide a ‘Supercharge’ that increases the firepower of the player’s current weapon (this upgrade is lost when the player loses a life), temporary protection, and extra lives.
Before the final stage, the keys collected from the penultimate eighth stage can be used to free the player’s relatives before the final battle with the Crimson King. The ending varies depending on how many family members the player has rescued.
