Just as it mixed up the Galaga-like action shooter genre with the three-level ship upgrade mechanics of Moon Cresta, quirky game maker Nichibutsu reworked the side-scrolling shoot-em-up concept with MagMax (no connection to the Mel Gibson car combat movie). The game starts players with a small ship moving over a futuristic, 2.5D scrolling landscape, attacking stationary and moving enemies, but moving over a teleporter transports the ship to an underground area that turns the game in a more traditional side-scrolling shooter. Picking up a torso and then legs upgrades your ship into a robot, which increases both your firepower and your vulnerability to enemy fire (fortunately being hit simply downgrades your craft, a la Super Mario Bros.). The game's delightfully weird concept and devilishly tricky enemies make MagMax an obscure shooter that was ahead of its time.