Stinger/Gameplay

Controls

 * : Use the direction pad to guide your ship in any one of eight different directions. You can fly around the majority of the visible screen.  The screen will advance horizontally to the right or vertically upward on its own.
 * : In horizontally scrolling stages, the A button fires a heart shaped object above each ship. This object can only be used to bounce bells and keep them aloft.  In vertically scrolling stages, the A button is used to lob bombs down at the ground, as long as your ship still has arms.  The crosshair will remain on the ground to indicate where the bomb is going to land.  This crosshair has a tendency to lock onto a nearby target if your ship is just within range of it.
 * : In horizontally scrolling stages, the B button fires each ship's primary weapons and lobs bombs down at the ground. In vertically scrolling stages, the B button merely fires the ship's primary weapons, and the function of firing the bombs transfers to the A button.
 * : Press start to begin a new game, or to pause and unpause the action mid-game.
 * : Only used on the title screen to select a one or two (or three in the Japanese version) player game.

Bells
Bells are ordinarily obtained by shooting clouds and knocking them loose. They will rise in the air slightly before falling back down to the ground, or bottom of the screen. You can hit the bells with your weapons, or hearts. Doing so will continue to bounce them and keep them aloft. After shooting bells a number of times, they may deviate from the usual yellow color and become a different color which will bestow a new power-up to your ship.

Bonus Items
In every stage but the seventh, a bonus item can be revealed by bombing the proper locations. While the appearance of the bonus changes from stage to stage, they are always worth 1000 points.