In 1991 the Neo Geo was the most powerful thing you could own at home - and easily the most expensive. SNK built it so that arcade cabinets and home consoles ran identical hardware, which meant games like Ghost Pilots looked exactly the same in a living room as in an arcade. At the time that was unique.

Ghost Pilots is a vertically scrolling shooter flown in seaplanes, a setting the genre returned to often: vintage aircraft over open water, with islands and ships as targets. The structure is classic - fly forward, shoot, collect weapon upgrades, and hold a limited stock of bombs for emergencies. Two players can fly simultaneously, which always transforms a shooter: double the firepower and double the chaos on screen.

What the Neo Geo added was sprite size and detail. Enemy ships and aircraft could be large, with many animation frames, and explosions carried far more visual weight than on ordinary consoles of the period. The price was arcade-calibrated difficulty - Neo Geo games assumed a player feeding in credits, and the pacing reflects that assumption directly.

Playing it now, the first impression is often that it is unfair. It is not; it simply expects you to learn enemy placement and to have the right weapon at the right moment. If you enjoy early-1990s Japanese shooters, this is a well-produced example with a firm but comprehensible difficulty curve.