Great podcast...and great game chosen!
This is the game I play the most on my MVS/Neo Geo 160 in 1
For me it's the best shooter of this console! The sprites are huge, colorful and really give the impression that is 3D 'polygons' game.
You're right, Viewpoint is hard as hell... common point with Zaxxon : the 'parallax' scrolling! I'm sure the human being cannot easily manage such '3D' view, that's why these games are so hard to play! Especially the bosses! And I would say 'mostly' the bosses, because if it's quite easy to survive between them, It seems that the programmer 'artificially' increased the difficulty for the bosses only?! The lack of save points doesn't help either...
Never went further the stage 3...my best score is 69500 PTS. I need to practice more!