Stargunner

For it's time, it was probably a lot of fun, but feels like one of those games that wants your quarters instead of wanting you to progress.

Stargunner brings to the table a reasonable sidescrolling shooter completely free... which is good, 'cuz I ain't paying for this game. Gameplay wise, it has a nice upgrade system for you ship ( not for the primary gun, that are only two mods) while all other things are.. too many. too many and none of them is really memorable: Death traps, enemies.. all over the place. It's not even a challenge, it is just... not fun. I mean, it is kind of fun... but the game is way too frustrating for really being actually enjoyable ( Of course, there are always people who love being blow up a 1000 times). All other aspects are: story ( non-existing) soundtrack ( surprisingly good) and graphics ( quite enjoyable). So, if you are looking to try out something for like 12 min and then unistall it.. that's the game. Funny part is that even if it is free.. on this very site you'll find other free games with ships involved that are WAY better then this one.... Yes, I'm talking about Tyrian 2000 ( go play that one)

It has no story, and only four levels. The graphics are hideous: the sprites are huge and seem completely out of place. The controls seem fine, but don't save the game. Just compare it with Tyrian, which has beautiful, lush graphics and a wonderfully witty story with satirical jabs at media or the corporate world. And it came out one and a half years before Stargunner. Not to mention it is also free (just look up OpenTyrian in Google or here on GoG). Heck, even Wing Commander IV predates Stargunner by nine months! There's just no excuse for this game.

a childhood classic. happy to have it.

Okay, guys, honesty is the best policy, so I'm gonna drop a hot take: A game isn't hard if it's BS. And this shmup has many bad design decisions that make it BS. This was Apogee's swansong, and unfortunately, it really doesn't feel tested at all. Any difficulty selections are quickly moot when you start playing. The scaling is so off the charts that any stage is soon a serious chore to deal with. After chapter 0 and two thirds of chapter 1, my patience had run out completely. I'm sorry, I tried! I honestly tried. But at the end of the day, this just isn't a good shmup, freeware or not. And I have seen and even played my fair share of decent, even GREAT freeware shmups. My heart goes out to the developers, though, as I hope they were able to learn from their mistakes and make better games in this genre even as the Apogee label effectively faded out.