My guess is that they are powerups? In that case, please keep them strong. They were my fav weapons in DS but I hated how they were weak for a powerup that is limited. The whole point of homing in on enemy is to help the player clear the screen clutter afterall, why not do it with a bang and make them actually useful, like a one shot kill (not for boss of course).

Anyways, it's upto you how you balance your own game. It still looks fun. I am atm playing Gradius V and just installed Demon Star 2 after reading this thread.

BTW, I didn't play much of DS1 but in DS2 you pretty much died in a shot or two most of the time. What I really like in DS is how the developers didn't flood the screen with enemies (like Astro Avenger for example) where you had no way to dodge the countless bullets flowing towards you (I really hate that).

Anyways, good luck with this (didn't you create a mech game as well?).