I love this game! It is WAY too hard. That is my criticism. Well, also it’s a little cryptic, dropping you right into the shopping interface, which could be much easier to follow. But once you figure that out (which isn’t nearly as bad as many other games I’ve had the misfortune of reviewing), you’re in for very intense, very fun shooter action with gorgeous graphics. And the shopping is great too, with a variety of nifty weapons and, due to the difficulty, a puzzle of sorts to figure out what weapons you can equip just to survive. - MH

This aptly named scrolling shooter will fill your every orifice with jets ‘n guns as advertised. (Orifices of your ship) At one time I considered myself pretty skilled at 2d shooters but this game reduced me to tears so I set the difficulty to “Easy” for the first time, well, pretty much ever. One tip is be sure to click the start mission button and don’t fly for ten minutes in the ‘weapon testing area’ like some moron I won’t mention did. Oh, and it’s a fantastic game with great graphics and music. - SR

Holy Majumbo! An awesome looking 2D shooter, with one of the finest game soundtracks I've heard in a long time. Ok, the soundtracks by Machinae Supremacy, and I am a bit of a fan of their music, so I'm totally biased. :D. The killing is satisfying, not to sound uncivilized. It's great to watch enemy aircraft dive into obstacles, enemy soldiers, or chemical waste bins (drugs!?), in turn causing explosions and more chaos. Main beef is it's INCREDIBLY HARD! Beating the first level on medium was a task best left to insane shmup-a-holics, which makes me wonder who hard difficulty is for. It sports beautiful particle effects (if not overly used), awesome production values, and did I mention I really like the soundtrack? First Impression 10 (Awesome), Lasting Impression 8 (Hard, and it wouldn't be fair to let a soundtrack by a favorite band completely decide the score of a game). - MK

Fun, very well presented, but really pointless. This is definitely not a bad game, in fact it's a good game, but it really pushes the mindlessness of arcade play to the limit, testing your dexterity well, but not laying a finger on your other mental faculties. Don't forget the part about it being fun though. It's rather good, but not great. - MH

Despite the name it's a rather tame game that plays a lot like Centipede. Given the general indie fascination with Breakout/Arkanoid clones, it's nice to see another classic that I've all but forgotten. It's well produced with nice cartoony art and music. The controls work (mouse based). It has an interesting special shot that actually aligns the shots vertically with your character (although I thought it was a bug at first). Not a lot of variety or depth to the gameplay, but it's nice for a short little romp. First Impression 6, Lasting Impression 6 (Chicken). - MK

This is what 3D breakout games should be! Not that this is all that great. It's just like a 2D breakout game, but it takes advantage of the 3rd dimension in some simple little ways to add to that - some bricks are stacked up (but not giant structures of them that take 4 hours to go through), and there's a fun semi-physics-based effect of bricks getting tossed around by explosions and a special powerup. This is not a stand-out game, but it's solid and the first 3D breakout game I haven't been bored to death by. - MH

An acceptable but very uninspiring top-down shooter. First time I've seen a shooter that put life meters on the regular enemies Also the first time I've seen one that gave you limited ammo on your primary weapon (but so much that there's really no chance to see what happens when you run out). This is not a horribly broken game in any way, but it is also not compelling in any way. - MH

Hey, two games in the same month with uncalled-for life meters! And on top of that, it has the silly voices from Jam XM! And in a 3rd similarity zone, it's a Space Invaders game like Xeno Assault is! It's like this is the ghost of game reviews past come to haunt me. This game is tolerable, just like Machine Hell and Xeno Assault, but if I had to rank the three, it would be last. Not sure which of the other two would be first. None are great, none are awful. - MH

Another perfectly ordinary top-down shooter, this one in the style of Space Invaders (Galaga, etc). Some detriments: one of the bonus weapons (the Fixed Turret) is vastly better than any of the others (resulting in me dodging the others eventually), and the graphics are muddy and dull enough that at least on my laptop screen, it was often hard to spot the enemies (nevermind that swarms of smaller enemies zoom around the background during play). Not a bad game, basic fun shooting, but nothing to crow about either. - MH

I don’t feel right giving such a low score to such a unique game that had so much effort put into it, but I wouldn’t feel right recommending it either, so I’m stuck. This game is incredibly confusing, with a tremendously bad play interface in many ways, and just a generally glitchy style that makes you feel like you’re controlling a paper cutout. You can definitely have classic head-stomping platform fun with this game, you’ll just have to get over a lot of stuff to do it. It’s ambitious, with graphical cutscenes that feature good voice acting and one of the most offensive depictions of a woman I’ve seen in a video game, which is quite a feat. - MH

A nicely produced platformer. Biggest surprise is the quality of the voice acting. I'd swear the dialog is straight from a Saturday morning cartoon. The game looks pretty good, though inconsistencies in the art outline thicknesses detract from the look of the cinematics and some of the in game art. The game does some interesting things with the perspective, specifically it rotates the playfield giving you more level to play. The PDA, while unattractive is an interesting addition. The game is repetitive like so many other platformers, though it does feature an interesting bonus stage and some unique to each 'world' effects (snow plowing, etc...). First Impression 9 (Nice voice acting!), Lasting Impression 6. - MK

A really great game – one of the very few demos I just kept going back to whenever I wanted to kill a little time. The gameplay is so simple that it’s just a pleasure to breeze along and give it a go. It can be fairly easy (at higher levels) to end up in a state where it’s nearly impossible to make progress and you just keep dying over and over. I would’ve really appreciated something to help you with such a situation (maybe just making enemies that hit you blow up along with you). When will I give out a 10? Who knows, but boy that will be SOME game. MH

A well-done puzzle game. It takes the well-worn pipe puzzle and gives it some variety, both in different game modes, and in the main Adventure mode, where each level has different goal to keep things interesting and mixed. It also has a nice art style. The isometric perspective can make seeing where the pipe piece is going to go a little iffy at times, but it looks good and isn't often a problem. There's really nothing major I can complain about with this game, other than it being a pipe puzzle game. So if you like those, I recommend it. - MH

A nicely done clone of pipe dream. I do really like the graphics in the game, very... urr.. juicy. The perspective is rather interesting as well. Some of the levels are hard, probably harder than most casual gamers can handle, as it requires you to move and think quickly. Other than the difficulty, it's a fun little game. First Impression 8, Lasting Impression 6. - MK

This game takes the familiar them of building a pipeline but mixes up the game play with different challenges like limited pieces and multiple flows. Something about the graphics is just tasty and made me hungry. Sadly, I got frustrated and didn’t finish the demo. - SR

A very good game of darts that suffers from the same problem that some of the pool games I reviewed before do - it assumes you know the rules of the underlying sport! It took me several losses to fully understand the rules of 501 (note to newbies: your final throw must be on the double-point row), and it makes no effort to guide you along. It's funny because it explains in intimate detail how to actually throw the darts, but it completely ignores why you are throwing them. Seems to be a common problem in real-sports games. Despite the lack of comprehension, it's quite fun to play. - MH

If you’re like me and dumb, you’ll want to know Oche (pronounced liked Hockey without the h) is a British way to say darts. This is the best Oche simulation I’ve ever played. It’s also the only Oche simulation I’ve ever played. It sports tournaments, neat special games, playing with a friend and the ABSOLUTE COOLEST FEATURE EVER: Importing custom pictures to throw darts at people you hate! (Mai-Mai from Pow-Pow) It’s fun, but I’ve got to wonder why the 3d darts aren’t textured. - SR

Another in the November vertical-shooter crowd. This is my least favorite of the bunch, with unimpressive graphics and very wimpy feeling weapons. It also has a very strange tendency to try to act like it's a spaceflight simulator rather than a simple arcade shooter - it still plays like an arcade shooter, power-ups and all, but it's got shields, hull strength, a detailed manual, limited missiles you can toggle from dual to single fire, and a menu system that looks straight out of Wing Commander. It's just a fine little dose of intergalactic cognitive dissonance. - MH

Just awesome. But let me enumerate my complaints! The power-ups are virtually impossible to tell apart other than "good", "bad", or "indifferent", and in a similar note of confusion, there’s so much stuff falling from the sky at random that you often don’t know what it is, or you miss the ball amongst it. But that’s okay! This game is amazing! There are 100 levels and except a few standard breakout type standouts, they’re all totally unique and weird. I had a tremendous problem pulling myself away because I just wanted to see one more level. In addition, I will just mention one other wonderful innovation this brings to the genre: the Graviton. That alone injects so much skill and play improvement, I expect it will be a breakout standard within 6 months. It also does wonders for "Last Brick Syndrome", which is a terrible ailment of such games. Okay, one more comment: great balance – levels are all just the right length, no insta-quickies, no drawn out boredom. So very very close to a 10. -MH

This is Arkanoid at it’s most arkanoidiest. It’s a very well-made game, with a really nice style to it, but it offers nothing new, and in fact is far more basic than any of the other 4 million breakout games I've reviewed for the Monthly Round-Up - just the most generic power-ups, no special features, but that basic stuff is implemented well. You can’t go wrong with this game for basic breakout action, but if you want something more unique, I’d recommend going somewhere else! - MH

Sigh... Breakout/Arkanoid clone. What I do like about this one is it's demoscene themed. The music is very cool, oldskool demoscene'ish. The graphics are good, with many fancy shaded fonts and effects like seen in numerous demoscene intro's and demo's. Solid. Down side, it's another Breakout/Arkanoid clone. Aparently one of these days I'm going to have to acknowledge Breakout/Arkanoid as a genre (game tunnel already does). First Impression 7 (Shiny), Lasting Impression 5. - MK

The classic is back. I’ve got to say, this is the cleanest, most polished breakout around. It just exudes a gentle smoothness. (Geek note, Mike Welch’s great 2d engine was also used in CosmoBots) The levels are beautiful. I’d label it ‘old school’ when compared to BreakQuest. It provides a more classic experience. People confused and dizzy by BreakQuest’s out of control particle systems will find refuge and sanity here. - SR