An entry in Compile's shooter series, Aleste, MUSHA places the player in the role of a flying mecha pilot who must destroy a large super intelligent computer threatening planet Earth.

Critics generally agreed the game was enjoyable with great graphics, but found themselves overwhelmed by the number of scrolling shooters on the Genesis and felt the title was unremarkable and lacked challenge.

[7] MUSHA has been more well-received in retrospective reviews, where it is cited for its challenging gameplay, strong soundtrack, and graphics that were ahead of its time.

[8] The player takes on the role of Terri,[b] a pilot who flies a specially designed mecha vehicle with advanced weaponry called a MUSHA.

[5] The valley stage in MUSHA utilizes the Genesis's vertical parallax scrolling capabilities, which was later highlighted by critics as one of the game's most impressive technical features.

[5] For MUSHA's soundtrack, Nakashima originally presented an idea for what he called "Edo Metal" music to composer Toshiaki Sakoda.

They eventually agreed on creating a speed metal soundtrack which would match the fast scrolling action of the game.

[9][12][11][13][14] Critics found themselves overwhelmed by the number of shoot 'em ups on the Sega Genesis, and considered MUSHA to be another standard shooter offering.

[9][12][13][14] Richard Leadbetter from Computer and Video Games found the visuals to be smooth and highlighted the parallax scrolling effect in the canyon level.

[9] Frank Martinez Jr. from GameFan also praised the parallax scrolling in addition to the enemy and character sprite detail.

Both Lucas M. Thomas of IGN and Damien McFarren of Nintendo Life praised the title's detailed graphics, fast-paced soundtrack, and tough difficulty.