Buster

Japanese action platformer by E. Hashimoto. Remake of Buster for the Sharp X68000 game. Buster is a Japanese doujin platform game that's clearly been heavily influenced by Arcade platformers of the late 1980s, like Wardner and Legend of Hero Tonma. In it, the player travels, in the traditional manner, from left to right, killing enemies as you go. One standout feature is the sword meter, which decreases every time you make a normal attack, and replenishes gradually when you're not attacking. You do also have an alternate attack, in the form of a sliding kick, performed by pressing the attack button at the same time as hitting the ground after a jump or fall. The sliding kick doesn't deplete the sword meter, and in fact quickly replenishes a large portion of it.

The stages are designed with precision, and they expect to be played with precision in return. The first stage allows the player to get acquainted with the controls and mechanics, but as soon as the first boss is defeated, the game no longer has any mercy. There are jumps which require pixel-perfect accuracy, and a little later, situations that require that accuracy in jumping, but also perfect timing in attacking, and all in tiny time frames with no space for error.

The maker, E. Hashimoto, later went on to make a few fairly well-known PC games, such as Akuji the Demon, and Guardian of Paradise. He's also made a pseudo-remake of Buster, 11 years after the original was released.