Unlike any other flying game with power ups that alter your weapons, FIRE BIRD offers a full 5 different ships you can pilot right off.  Then as you progress into a bonus stage, you can morph the power ship into the "Fire Bird".  This Fire Bird looks much like a Mecca from Gundam or Power Ranger's Megazord.  However, the bonus ship and Fire Bird both offer a full array of weapons.  During game play you can switch between the five starting ships at will on the spot to change your weapon style.  Each craft comes with it's own levels of power that make their weapon stronger as well.  Also if you switch out a ship, that ship will maintain it's power level until you call for it again.

The story goes of the enemies from an unknown have come to invade Earth and take everything over, however a great mind put together two brothers in an effort to bring forth the ultimate fighting machine, Fire Bird.  Fire Bird Jet Mode and Fire Bird Combat Mode both fight on levels far beyond anything Earth has ever seen before.  Now you take control of one of the brothers in this one or two player forward scrolling game.  As you battle it out with the enemies from the unknown, watch for people in need of help.  Pick up the people and other power ups to raise your score even higher, however be careful of those Boss fights.  They are very powerful, and may only have selected weaknesses from different weapon types.

Playing through this game I couldn't help but wonder why it was never made into a full anime line or even live action.  It has a good story behind it, original characters and family ties.  Unlike any other shooter type there are many options that allow a very fast style of play, even when using either of the Fire Bird modes.  Even then, this is the only game I've seen where you have to manually time the transformation of Fire Bird to it's full combat mode.  For those of you wondering, yes that Sword hits harder than a tank easy!  Can anyone say over-sized Blade Beam?

So don't miss out on the chance for this action and live the unique story of the brothers who pilot the FIRE BIRD!  A rare over look gem of a game to say the least!

An odd glitch to note on, when pressing A or Select to change ships, the music restarts when you return to the battle.