I finally got a copy of the game yesterday, and I'm impressed.
It reminds me a lot of those mid-90s shooters, in that it doesn't really seem to spam the screen with 4585703 bullets and rely on some gameplay contrivance to get you through it. This is a good thing, and, oddly enough, a breath of fresh air after games like Mars Matrix.
I'm really digging the three different weapon modes you can switch between, and powering them up is both sensical and good for high scores. Not so good for beating the game easy, though-the game seems harder the more powerful your ship is. The bonus parts of levels for fulfilling certain tasks, that's cool. And hard, if the dragons in the first level are any indication.
Music rocks. The backgrounds rock. The gameplay graphics, not exactly the prettiest on the DC, but are functional, and don't get in the way of the game itself. Grabbing consecutive medals for bonus points makes the game harder, as you're trying to rush for medals while avoiding everything else flying at you. And make no mistake, the game is pretty rough.
I'm definitely ranking it among one of those "must have" import DC shooters, a place which, thus far, I've only put Border Down in.