Finest Hour/Walkthrough

Namco's Japan-only 1989 run and gun arcade game Finest Hour's divided into a total of eight rounds, the first four of which serve as an introduction to the second four (much like how the first five stages of Rolling Thunder, which was released three years earlier, and also utilized the Yamaha YM-2151, served as an introduction to the second five stages); the first and fifth rounds (which are subtitled "Middletown Dreams") are set in the territorial area of Foskeivo, the second and sixth rounds (which are subtitled "Distant Early Warning") are set in the territorial area of Esperuntuwa, the third and seventh rounds (which are subtitled "Subdivisions") are set in the territorial area of Lough.Nemarfy and the fourth and eighth rounds (which are subtitled "Grace Under Pressure") are set on the territorial planet of Zone.Y.Jounis. Each of the rounds' subtitles are derived from songs, written by the rock band Rush.

The recharge level of Sygnus's Vernier jump-jets (although it is misspelled as "Verneir") is shown upon the left side of the status bar at the bottom of the screen; if they are insufficiently recharged when you decide to activate them, Sygnus shan't be able to jump as high as he normally does, and may have to wait until he can. To its right is the level of Sygnus's temperature (in Celsius) - which increases while he is being fired upon by enemies and decrease while he is not. To its right is a radar display, which is similar to the ones which were featured in Namco's own Rally-X, New Rally-X and Bosconian; this shows the proximity of any enemies in its catchment area to the current position of Sygnus. To its right is a timer - but if Sygnus fails to clear the current round before it runs out, his cooling device will break (indicated by "COOLING DEVICE BROKEN" at the screen's bottom), and he will start glowing red.