Fair enough, I wasn't sure how strict that type of thing is here.

Yeah, the concept is a bit muddled, and definitely needs revision if I ever revisit the game. The idea is that the upside-down UI elements are the score and lives of the "good guy", viewed as if they were across from you, or opposite viewing an arcade game from the perspective of a typical shmup. The score is irrelevant to the game, and the lives count are all the player would care about with those ui elements, so I figured it wouldn't be too confusing...