The controls are straightforward, with the arrows, 2nd to fire (hold it down to power up your cannon). One thing that gets confusing is power-ups. They float down the screen and you have to grab them, but it is possible to grab a power-up worse than what you currently have and be stuck with an inferior weapon. Sometimes you get a different weapon even when you pick a power-up that looks the same. Also, rather than your typical sidecar as in most shooters, you have a helpful "orb" that follows you- but you can make it fly off in front or in back of you to hit enemies around corners and hard-to-hit places. It can also shoot behind you. Depending on whether or not you have the orb and whether it's attached to your ship or not, the upgrades you get vary, which is confusing. The game takes a lot of strategy, rather than mindless shooting, one of the things that makes it so good- and infuriating.