I didn't find the sheilds in the games helpful ethier. Like Regulus, I only found the Skull Barrier to have a single purpose, and that'd be to not make the stones fall on you in Drill Man's stage.
The Metal Blade was my favorite weapon. Not only did it take forever to lose all of it's energy, but you can throw it in any direction. Useful for killing them birds.
What else was a awesome weapon...? I can't really think of any right now.
_________________ The Local Video Gaming Lunatic
Recent stuff I'm into:
Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing