"Midnight Resistance (ミッドナイトレジスタンス Middonaito Rejisutansu) is a 1990 run and gun arcade game developed and published by Data East. It used a 3D joystick (a normal 8 way joystick that could also be twisted as a dial) to allow the player to aim independently of his direction of movement, which was notable at the time.
The player takes control of a commando who is out to rescue his kidnapped family, including his scientist grandfather who is being forced to create a weapon which will give the antagonist of the game, known only as "the Commissar", the power to take over the Earth. In the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version, the commando, known as Johnny Ford is on a solo mission to destroy the reign of the entity known as "The Crimson King" who kidnapped his family because Johnny's Father, Malcolm Ford created a serum which could make people immune to the addicting effects of drugs.
Gameplay is consistent with this genre: multi-directional shooting, fast action oriented gameplay, different weapons upgrades, and big mid- and end-of-level bosses. One or two players take on the role of two commando brothers whose entire family has been kidnapped and must be rescued. The game's eight large, eight-way scrolling levels are made up of platforms, ledges and ladders; each populated both with enemy soldiers and with intricate, imaginatively designed enemy machinery. As the players make their way through a level, they will be able to pick up red 'keys' - which are left behind by defeated enemies; collecting these keys will allow the players to upgrade their weapons at the shop that awaits at the end of each level. Two sorts of weapons can be obtained; regular weapons which are the ones you fire in eight directions and special weapons which are fired by pressing the fire button while the joystick is pulled up. The joystick is also rotatable for making it easier for players to point their fire arms wherever they want to shoot."
Source: Wikipedia, Midnight Resistance , available under the CC-BY-SA License.