Metroid Lightspeed is a top down shmup where you control Samus' ship in the time between the events of Metroid II and Super Metroid. It features many of the classic weapons at the ship level, like the (now stackable) ice and wave beams. Weapons that don't appear until Super Metroid take the form of "cannons", which allow you to use the Spazer, Charge, and Plasma upgrades with Wave and Ice. The Varia shield reduces your ship's hitbox by half, and the Gravity engine allows faster movement through space.