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This is a great-looking shareware game that's simple enough. You're in a hovering ship which can move around an arena in any direction and can face and fire either forwards or backwards. You have a choice between a wide arc of fire, or a single focused, powerful stream and each can be powered up individually, with a helpful little indicator in one corner of the screen to show the relative strengths of the two. It's similar to 80s shoot 'em up Uridium. You have to shoot all enemies and survive through 14 levels. These include a Holographic world which transforms as you face it, an Aztec word with traps and curses, and a Mekka world full of battleships and tanks. The game also features large polygon-based boss enemies and two different weapons, upgraded by collecting boxes. Aside from being ridiculously pretty, Space Tripper is as full as adrenaline as any game needs to be. There are enemies everywhere, close calls, tight squeezes and so on; tough bosses that need to be weakened and beaten, a refreshing change from the norm in today's games where everything is at full power until it dies, these bosses actually give you real, visual feedback on how well you are beating them. All of this combines to make one of the most well-crafted shooters. It has that visceral, biting tenseness and adrenaline of an arcade hit in years gone by. This is a definite return to those wonderful days when the high-score was king and games were played as far through as you were good enough to get, not until their inevitable conclusion and roll of credits. You are not going to beat it on its hardest difficulty for a long time, but you will want to so much it hurts and when you do, panting and sweating and shaking from the effort, you'll know that it was all worth it. |
