I have all but the two hidden silvers (complete the game on hard and impossible). Need to go back and get those…

I like it, but it's probably not for everybody – it is quite tough, and requires a fair bit of memorization and mastery of the chaining system to beat the game, but it's doable. If you like old-school shmups like R-Type, or more recent (ish) stuff like Einhander or Jet'n'Guns, then you might enjoy it.

OK. To begin with, you have two weapons – the pulse and beam. When you kill a bunch of enemies, the chain meter fills up – when it turns green, you'll want to switch to a different weapon in order to start up the next chain. Once you string a few together, you get power ups, health items and other useful items (e.g. the weapons protection item and the weapon cooler).

However, the thing you'll probably notice from the 1st level is that the beam weapon isn't much use, so you'll be using the pulse almost exclusively to begin with. Once you complete one chain with the pulse, hit the weapon switch, then hit it again to bring it back to the pulse. For level one, you should only be using the pulse – it will start to overheat at some points, so that's where the weapon cooling items come in – if you use these properly, you'll rarely have to use the beam. On level 2, you'll get the bow weapon which is quite powerful, so alternate between the bow and pulse. Keep in mind that the bow gauge doesn't refill automatically, so when it's about to run out, switch to the pulse and keep an eye out for the cooling items to refill the bow gauge. The beam weapon actually becomes more useful on level 3, as it does a pretty good job at destroying the asteroids in that level. From level 3, chaining becomes really important, as you'll get an extra life for completing the level 9 chain.

That all might sound a bit complicated, but it becomes 2nd nature when you've played it for a while. Just remember, when the chain meter turns green, switch weapons as quickly as possible (you can 'overfill' the meter and lose the chain).