Vacant Ark is a strange departure from standard horizontal shooters, featuring excellent sprite designs by Buster but employing a slightly awkward gameplay system. You can only store and use up to six bullets at any time, although this supply can be replenished by collecting blue gems from vanquished enemies.

You lose all your energy stock if an enemy bullet grazes your on-screen character. A life is lost if you have no energy left when receiving damage. Your pod can also turn enemy bullets into gems when not in use for a few seconds.

Each end level boss requires a different strategy to beat. Some weapons are more effective in certain situations. You can only progress to the next zone if none of the bosses escape.

The Vacuum is a sci-fi adventure game which tells the story of a couple traveling home inside a cargo ship when a pair of explosions set off a chain of events that will forever change both of their lives. The final outcome is influenced by key decisions made by you during the course of your investigation, though most of the endings contain only minor variations in comparison.

Use the tab key to display or hide your objectives. There is an option to skip walk animations with the space key in the settings menu.

Val and Rick is probably the precursor to Gunroar, featuring similar controls but in a different environment. Only 2D sprites and backgrounds are used in what seems like a tribute to Xevious and Star Soldier.

It could be a prototype but the game is pretty much complete and bug free. No information page was ever made for it either. Press the Z key to shoot and hold down the X key to fix the direction of your aim.

A power-up icon in the shape of a tiny ship named Rick will appear if you collect enough blue orbs from defeated enemies, which is indicated at the bottom left of the screen. This will cause your ship to go into hyperdrive, that is until all energy is spent or your spacecraft takes damage from enemy bullets. Each successful hyperdrive attempt increases the counter by another hundred.

The X key can also be used to drop bombs on grounded objects. Tap the P key to pause. The closer your ship is to the top of the screen, the faster it scrolls.

Valdis Story is a short 2D platformer with gorgeous pixel art and decent gameplay, though much of the enjoyment to be had will be hampered by either the high resource usage or difficulty in beating certain bosses.

The Castlevania influence is visible, with double jumps, inventory screen and dash moves worked into the game seamlessly to provide a coherent exploration platforming experience. Use the space key to leap, or press the D key repeatedly to attack once a weapon is acquired.

Featuring completely original artwork and programmed using Game Maker. The demo contains two playable stages only. Does not work for Vista.

Vampire Blaze is a freeware platform game which seems to have taken the best elements from early Castlevania releases and updated them for this project with improved controls, decent graphics and a catchy soundtrack. You start the monster hunt unarmed, but new weapons such as axes, knives, whips, crossbows and even guns can be acquired by destroying the many candelabras you will find during your adventure.

Press the X key to attack, or tap the C key to jump. Hold the Z key to sidestep or block enemy attacks with your weapon. The left shift key can be used to pause the game at any time.

Progress is saved automatically after the completion of each level, and players can continue their journey by using the resume option in the main menu. The Japanese language pack has to be installed to play, and the game will only run on displays configured with 16-bit color quality instead of the standard 32-bit. When starting Vampire Blaze, select the second option in the dialogue box for windowed mode.

Vampire Castle is an average platformer at best, with some rather unforgiving action sequences even at the easiest difficulty setting. Best to stick with Cave Story or Akuji the Demon, this one doesn't quite make the grade yet.

Vanguard Princess is a freeware versus fighting game created with Enterbrain's 2D Fighter Maker engine, featuring the sort of quality normally reserved for full-price commercial releases. There are ten playable characters to choose from, an assortment of special moves distinct to each combatant, excellent sprite work, creative costume designs, and even a multiplayer mode that is unfortunately limited to just two people playing on the same computer with no online capabilities. Depending on your interest in the genre you could still squeeze out an hour's play or two from it, although the end sequence for every character is practically the same.

The game will only work on Windows operating systems which can read names of files and folders in Japanese, or those that already have the Japanese language pack already installed. You can switch between full screen and windowed mode by using the left Alt and Enter key, while the button configuration option is accessible via the menu bar.

Varia is a new vertical shooter from Kairos, featuring four playable levels and a combination of influences from several classic shmups. Rotating powerups can be collected using the Cho Ren Sha 68K method, while options can absorb and mimic enemy attacks.

Hold the Z key to shoot, and use the X key to freeze options in their places. Tap the C key to free the ability of the currently selected option.

Vax-11 is probably the best example of how a shmup from the Pong era would look like. Done entirely using ASCII, it has everything you'd expect to see in a Japanese freeware shooter.

Power-ups, bombs, good frame rates, end level bosses, they're all there.

Veck is the latest in a line of Geometry Wars clone for the PC. Graphics are great, the effects are mesmerizing, plus the enemy ships have their own specific behaviors and attack patterns.

Using directional firing is advised, although a joypad is still the best choice for these sort of games. You can guide your ship towards a corner to survive for the first five minutes, but it's not such a safe haven when the portals begin to appear.

A new type of enemy is introduced every minute, and your ship gets a weapon upgrade when that happens. You will be rewarded with the ability to fire hundreds of bullets per second for lasting at least ten minutes in the game. Shields automatically regenerate over time.