Death Ray Manta SE

The game has so much visual clutter that it's just going to give you a aneurysm if you try to get a proper high score trying to decipher what will kill you and what won't at a fast enough rate. They should have added more T-Rexes and less flashing lights.

Zero options at all. Game launches at the same dB as a jet plane, in full screen, with absolutely no control customization. There is no menu, you just launch into an LSD overload and hope for the best. I don't even remember why or how this is in my library, but I would not recommend this even if it was free.

This takes me back to my youth. Minteresque visuals coupled with frenetic action, and no 'participation awards'. It's one life and you are back to the start. I'm not particularly good at it (High Score of 36, perfect completion is 64) but it's a magnificent sensory overload and it gets a run from time to time.

A bloomin' brilliant little game. Some recent reviews seem to misunderstand what this is - it's arcade fun in a very pure form: no hand-holding, just straight in to the game with 1 life, no online features, eyeball melting neon effects and an awesome retro synthwave soundtrack. It's designed for short blasts of fun (your eyeballs probably would not take long sessions!). It took me a couple of sessions to work out the rules which (I think) are: - Shoot / avoid enemies and their projectiles - Collect the shiny object - Shoot / avoid the obstacles (triangles - I thought these were collectables and I died more than once) Each stage is really quick to run through and you're straight into the next one - it's a hectic pace and there is a LOT happening on your screen. It's not a long game, but it will take you a while, and many deaths, to get through the stages. If you like Geometry Wars style games, if you like psychedelic games (like any number of Llamasoft games) - then I'm sure you'll enjoy this. I played this with a massive grin on my face throughout - it's so fun and uplifting. Only things I noted that could be improved: - It would be good to have the option to start another r…

runs great on deck

I'd like to recommend this because it looks a lot like Robotron, but done up in a style that's a combination of Amiga demo scene and Jeff Minter. Unfortunately, it only has a demo's worth of content and even though it's not expensive, I think there are other games in a similar price range that offer more. While it does play like Robotron in some ways, it's much more manic, there are no civilians to rescue (though there is a collectable in each stage) and not every single enemy has to be eliminated to progress. There's a set number of levels and there is no random generation or placement, so they are laid out the same each time. While there is a scoring system, it's minimal and there aren't any online leaderboards or even achievements, though there oddly are trading cards. It's definitely challenging, but I got through all the levels in less than an hour and other than doing a run where you don't miss any collectables, there's really nothing else to do here. It's not bad, it's just so light on content that it feels like a demo for a bigger game that doesn't exist. If you want modern Robotron, spend the extra coin on Nex Machina or just wait for one of the times it's on sale for p…