Ai Senshi Nicol teaches us what a love warrior is all about

destructoid.com:

I have this headcanon with Ai Senshi Nicol, that it’s about a female protagonist out to rescue her girlfriend. It’s not much of a stretch. The title translates to Love Warrior Nicol (perhaps they meant Nicole, but the English text spells it Nicol). The protagonist has bright pink hair (which isn’t strictly gendered, just to be clear). They’re named Nicol. Maybe it’s an unlikely subtext for a game released before even Caper in the Castro, but a girl can dream. Sometimes I wish ’80s video games were a little gayer.

Ai Senshi Nicol is a top-down, flip-screen shooter by Konami. If you think The Guardian Legend but without the shoot-’em-up sections, I’ll have to take your word for it because it has been years since I last played it. I mostly just remember the awesome heroine who could turn into a spaceship. Maybe the top-down sections from Blaster Master are a better point of reference. The plot is that you need to save your girlfriend, whose name isn’t Nicole. It’s Stella.

Your job is to collect three crystals on each level. They’re hidden in underground sections of each stage and are largely dispersed to the far corners. To reach them, you have to do some light top-down platforming and shoot through a plethora of baddies. There’s no instant death. Even if you screw up a jump, you just fall into an underworld area and have to climb out to continue. That’s nice because death means you’re starting the stage over.

To avoid having to repeat entire stages, you’ll need to seek out power-ups. Astro Wear, Astro Pants, Power Shoes, and others. Oh, I see you’ve already got your Astro Pants on. Because your butt is out of this world.

As goofy as the nomenclature is, It’s really important to seek out this equipment. Astro Wear cuts down