If you give this one a chance, you might decide it's of the better NES shooters you forgot about from back then.
The power-up system in this game is interesting because it serves as your health as well. You start as a winged soldier with a BB gun, who dies instantly if hit. As you collect power-ups, your gun improves and instead of dying when hit, your gun degrades one level. Get to power-up level 5, and you become the "Legendary Firebird" which can take three hits before it degrades back to level 4. Picking up another power item while already the Firebird will reset the three-hit count, effectively "healing" the Firebird. That's where the "Lucky" areas come in. The "Lucky" areas are the best place to find the power-ups you need to become a Firebird, and so the real key to enjoying this game is to know about (and enter) these hidden zones. You will notice in each level that there is a giant face on the ground that spits out smoke clouds that suck you into a "Danger" area of harder enemies. What you may not notice is that there is a cannon in each level that reveals a small cave and a whiff of smoke when destroyed. Touch that whiff of smoke to enter the "Lucky" area, and when you leave you'll be well on your way to Legendary Firebird status.
The downside of all this is that the end of the game comes quickly once you lose Firebird status in the later stages of the game, especially if you are nowhere near a "Lucky" zone. You might as well think of the game as only having one life, because your extra men won't last long as BB soldiers.
The graphics are on par with other Capcom NES games of the day like Bionic Commando or Section Z, although the "Danger" areas have some sub-par goofy-looking backgrounds (they're apparently supposed to look like some creature's innards). The sound, frankly, is pretty awful for today's standards. The music is about average NES fare, but some of the weapon noises seemed pretty irritating. However, given the fact that you can probably pick this up for $5 or less at your local trade-a-game place, you can have some decent fun for the price with this title. I'd play it again.