Blitzatron is an excellent remake of Williams’ Robotron: 2084, where you take on the role of mankind’s last hope on a quest to rescue as many clones as possible before they are totally wiped out.
Plenty of configurable parameters including five difficulty levels to challenge both beginners and arcade veterans. A joystick can be used as well.
Name: Blitzatron
Developer: Mark Incitti
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Discounting the graphics, Attack from Mars is probably the best freeware matching game available besides Zoo Keeper. You can select any of the 140 tiles to play with and even place your own songs in the music folder to listen to.
Tiles can be swap not only horizontally and vertically, but diagonally as well. Aliens will attempt to hamper your progress, though you can easily zap them to bits by pressing space. Use it sparingly as your zapper supply is limited.
Name: Attack from Mars
Developer: Mark Incitti
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Ms Blitzman is a remake of Midway’s Ms. Pac-Man, with one new addition. Eat prizes to gain zoom power, as the gauge at the top of the screen indicates. By pressing space, your character will speed across the screen until her energy runs out or the action button is released.
Besides that, everything else practically remains the same. Not an accurate remake but a good one nonetheless.
Name: Ms Blitzman
Developer: Mark Incitti
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Blitzum is a remake of an old Atari cabinet game called Quantum. In the original, the player has to manipulate a trackball to capture particles by drawing circles around them using a comet’s trail.
Your probe must absolutely not touch any particles except for electrons or risk losing a life. Nuclei are joined together at later stages, and coming into contact with these strands when red proves lethal as well. Quantum allows players to sign their names using the trackball, but this effort by Mark Incitti lets you circle the characters you want to appear on the high score table.
Players can select their starting level in increments of two from the main menu. Some basic gameplay instructions are shown just after the high score table.
Name: Blitzum
Developer: Mark Incitti
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Super Human Cannonball is the sequel to Luke Twyman’s original effort, where you assume the role of a daredevil pressured to please his bloodthirsty audience by performing a series of death-defying stunts.
The introduction screen blasts you with rocking music, setting up the scene perfectly for the bloodbath to come. Players are rewarded for completing stunts as well as failing miserably. Earn splatter points by landing on the top or side of buildings, billboards, even copter blades.
Play instructions can be accessed from the main menu, and high scores can be posted online for global fame or shame. Arcade and Single Mode allows for three tries per stunt and a chance to earn splatter points. Career Mode forces players to retry stunts until they get it right. Good for practice, but definitely not for the impatient.
Name: Super Human Cannonball
Developer: Luke Twyman
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB
7 Wonders of the Ancient World is an effort by Hot Lava Games that is heavy on the eye candy, but offers little in terms of originality.
The main objective is to break the square blocks that lie behind each rune to create stones for workers to use. The player has to provide enough basic resources for the workers to complete a part of the current Wonder they are working on before time runs out.
Matching three runes will remove them, but matching more yields special items such as the lightning and fire balls which can be used to destroy all runes in the same column or row.
It’s fun to watch the workers go about their business, go on strike, faint from exhaustion and even take a break once in a while. Not just merely cosmetics, they also contribute to your end level bonus points total.
Name: 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
Developer: Hot Lava Games
Category: Puzzle
Type: Demo
Size: 12MB
Fate-Sword Dance is an excellent fighting game by Rapid Fire that features well-drawn 2D sprites much like those from SNK’s The King of Fighters series.
Moves can be found in one of the extracted folders. The Z, X, C and A keys correspond to the P, K, S and HS buttons. To initiate an air combo, just press the S key when your character is standing close to his opponent. Pressing the D key brings up the pause menu.
Unfortunately only two characters are playable in the trial, and importing it is going to cost quite a bit. The Japanese web site can be found here.
Name: Fate-Sword Dance
Developer: Rapid Fire
Category: Action
Type: Demo
Size: 60MB
Mythic Blades is a 3D fighting game by Vermillion Games that features twelve characters from the Greek mythology, although only seven are available from the start.
The 3D graphics are impressive and it will run at any resolution on most machines. The men and giants have rippling muscles while the women are beautifully rendered. With the exception of the Medusa and Sphinx, of course. They’re not commonly associated with good looks, but still imposing nonetheless.
Instructions for all basic and special moves can be found in the installation folder. Most characters are limited to two special attacks and one divine attack. The divine attack usually benefits the losing opposition as the power gauge shown at the bottom of the screen charges up faster than the attacking player.
The demo weighs in at less than 20MB. Although only showcasing two characters, there’s really not much of an excuse not to try it out.
Name: Mythic Blades
Developer: Vermillion Games
Category: Action
Type: Demo
Size: 20MB
Shoot the Bullet is another excellent production by ZUN, described as a photography game rather than a classic shooter that the prolific developer is famous for.
There are only boss battles, but you can choose to play the stages in any order. The only way you can hurt your adversary is by taking their pictures. The number of photos required to defeat a boss is indicated at the top right of the screen, and battles get progressively harder after each picture is taken.
Pressing the X key slows down your character’s movement. The Z key is assigned for snapshots, but requires a recharge after each use. Holding down the same button allows the player to move the camera crosshair around as well.
Extremely difficult, but surprisingly fun. Click here for more gameplay information. No demo available yet, but there’s a list of games developed by him on this page which includes trial version downloads.
Name: Shoot the Bullet
Developer: Team Shanghai Alice
Category: Shooter
Type: Demo
Size: 150MB
Emblem of Red is a fighting game by EXZAM that features eight characters, each with their own set of basic and special moves shown at the player selection screen.
Most of the moves are pretty easy to pull off, but important combos can only be discovered through experimentation. Computer-controlled characters are just too eager to show you how a multiple-hit combo is done.
Sprites and backgrounds are serviceable though a little on the plain side. However, the gameplay is good enough to make up for it’s graphical shortcomings and will not disappoint fans of fighting games.
Press the F4 function key to switch between window and full screen mode.
Name: Emblem of Red
Developer: EXZAM
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 50MB