Thexder

This one brings back some memories. Played on a compaq 8088 machine where you really could only get just beyond the long pool of lava in the second area before running out of energy. Brutal game where, while in robot form your laser locks on to targets but then may not shoot them enough to kill them before switching to the next target, resulting in you shooting each target a little until you finally have killed them all. In plane form you at least shoot straight but enemies are fast and some will fly just out of the line of fire. 

Later on, I played a port on an Apple IIRC that was much easier and I was able to get to the end of the game without issue. 

The idea of a game where you can be either robot or plane is great. The execution on this one is deeply lacking though. It just isn't very fun being in robot form and having your laser auto lock on -- especially if it can't kill anything. 

Oh BTW. This same company later put out a game called Silpheed which was a better effort all around despite being a rail shooter. 

As a five or six year old boy playing this, a robot that transforms into a jet and shoots lasers was the essence of cool.