Space Pirates

Space Pirates is an early one level demo vertical shoot em up which is looking like it may turn into a nice little game along the lines of Ether Vapour. In the game you get your normal array of enemies that seem to move in and out of the screen giving you that look that they are moving further into to distance whilst firing a hell of a lot of bullets back at you. To destroy these you get your normal gun if that’s not good enough you can fire a pod which is a lot more powerful so destroys the bad guys sooner you also get your power ups which in the demo are few and far between I’m guessing there will be more in the finished game. Visuals are quite stunning with everything  being colourful and detailed so its looks really nice  and your getting all this from something being made with Game Maker. Controls at the moment are Game Pad only but in the finished game Keys will be a choice of controls. If you want to keep an eye on this go over to Shmup-Dev and follow its progress.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Black Armada

Black Armada is a Vertical Shooter that reminds me of so many of the shooters that got me hooked so many years ago. This game has three levels for you to play through and if you read the site I got it from it looks like it may well have more in the future so keep an I open for updates. For a Vertical shmup this game ticks all the right boxes it has power ups special weapons and lots of bullets and bad guys for you too evade before you reach you end of level boss some are easy to finish off others take a few more shots to see them off. Visuals are nice and detailed if a little dark in some places it can be hard to see your own ship but you soon get used to this and the game plays nice and smooth. You can choose which controls you want to use from the main menu just redefine to you favourite keys before you start the game and you also need to have Java installed on your PC to run this as it is written in Java.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Qualifier

Qualifier is a Horizontal Shooter that in some ways reminds me of Shooter 2008. Its not a bad little game but becomes frustrating very quick so if you have a short temper you should maybe give this one a miss. It’s not how high you score in this game it’s how long you manage to stay alive because each time you let an enemy go past you your heath meter goes down a little and you only get one meter and at the pace and numbers they come at you it’s hard to get them all. There are no power ups as such the only thing you would call a power up is that as you progress the number of bullets you fire increases and you need everyone of those bullets to count or your in for a very short game. Visuals are OK nothing special but they do the job intended and tho whole thing plays really smooth. Not one for the faint hearted this one but worth a try all the same.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Sparx 2

This must be my week for Arena Shooters because Sparx 2 is the second Arena Shooter to cross my path when I was over on Retro Remakes site the other day. This game follows in the Geometry Wars style like most of this type of game and it runs in your browser so you will need Java for this to work. It doesn’t bring anything new to the genre but I thought it has some very nice visuals indeed, my favorite being the explosions when you shoot something the rest of which are Vector style graphics. Controls are a little strange for me so took some getting used to  they are W A S D keys to move and your Mouse operates which direction you are shooting in and to help you along there are a few power ups to collect along the way. For me there can never be enough of this kind of game so I think you should give it a try.

Works With Vista

Try It Here

Riesling

AuthenticKaizen sent me this side scrolling shooter a few weeks back and thought it deserved a showing. The best way to describe this game is remake of that old classic Defender with a few new touches. One of those new touches is that when you destroy something it explodes and scatters fruit  over the screen for you to collect for extra points not sure what fruits have to do with space but its different and you also get power ups along the way to collect too. The other new touch is the nice new colourful graphics and background that have scan lines on them to make the whole thing look retro and I have to say it does look nice. Sadley there is no hyper space button for you to hit when things get busy which in the latter levels would of been quite nice but its still worth a download if your a fan of the original.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Last Out

Last Out is a remake of  Z out that was a classic side scrolling shooter game released for the Commodore Amiga in 1990. The game at the minute is only a one level demo but gives you a good idea of how the game will feel when it is finished and having played  the original this one is shaping up quite nicely indeed. The Graphics for this game have been enhanced from the original which really adds to the game and yet it still feels like a 16 bit game when you play however the music and sound effects remain the same as the Amiga version. Like many early shooters there are a few power ups but nothing that will blow you away but they crop up now and then some of them good and some of them not so good. Controls are Cursor Keys to move and Space Bar to fire. If you owned an Amiga this one is worth keeping an eye on and checking out.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Chaos Space 2

Chaos Space 2 is an Arena Shooter that I found on the Blitz forum and being a fan of the type of game I downloaded straight away. The game itself is very much like many of the GeoWars clones that have been released over the years and doesn’t really offer anything new to the genre but it is an arena shooter and these seem to be few and far between so it deserved a go. As you play the game you get your normal kind of  power ups to help you along the all of which only last for a short amount of time before they leave you with your primary weapon to finish them off. Visuals are nice and vectorish and do the job well whilst sound is mainly music playing away in the back ground however this does fit in nice with the game play. Controls are Mouse Control only so are easy to get used to. My main bad point is that everything is in german so you have to click on a few things to see what does what and once thats done your away. Not one for every Shmup fan but if you like arena shooters you will like this too.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Attack Of The Alien Space Beetles

This is a demo of a forth coming shooter from Raccoonrocket and am very pleased to say that it looks very nice indeed. Its still in its early stages as there is no front end or game over to this game yet but it is still really fun to play it reminds me a lot of Galaga style game play with things flying at you from all angles. The enemies are all very cute indeed and are to many to list but I think they look cool and colourful and detailed and they each have their own actions when it comes to attacking you and they also release something for you to collect when they are killed. This ranges from pieces of fruit to bags of cash to weapon upgrades. The sound effects are also fun which is what this game is and the explosion noise when you are killed is one of the loudest I’ve ever heard in a game. This game when finished will be in my top ten so give it a try now.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Luor

Luor is a three level demo of vertical shmup that’s beginning to look very promising. The thing  that makes this stick out to me is the style in which the visuals have been done with bright coloured back grounds an enemy sprites that are coloured black whilst your ship is bright white some how these colours just seem to work and the whole thing moves along nice and smooth. The game itself has a nice learning curve that breaks you in nice and steady but even in level three things soon become quite the bullet fest that this game is going to be. Controls are Cursor Keys to move, Ctrl Key is your primary weapon and Shift Key is your special weapon. At this minute there aren’t that many new shooters out there but from what I’ve seen of this and others that are in the pipe line we have a lot to look forward to.

Works With Vista

Download From Here

Cosmic Pirates

Cosmic Pirates is a cool horizontal shooter that I came across the other day on YoYo Games site. It’s slightly different from other shumps of its kind because you have to destroy the enemies which range from Asteroids to Space ships and each time you destroy one a crystal is left behind which when you collect you are given a money value for and if you don’t collect they join with others crystals which become bigger and are worth more. The reason for this is that you have to collect a certain amount of money each time before you get a chance to power up with one of quite a few different weapons to choose from. The visuals for this game are excellent and give alot of the other games out there a run for their money with detailed space ships and massive explosions for you to look at and the sound effects fit in perfect as they are very loud which shows that the job has been done. Controls are Mouse only which makes things quite easy to get used to. The one thing that is missing is there are no Bosses to defeat however this is still worth a download.

Works With Vista

Download From Here