Stargunner

I played the abandonware version of it like 5 years ago, and it had the same appeal to me as it did when I was just a kid. It's a game a played a lot. It has 3 completely different worlds (Space, Surface, Underwater) with unique enemies and a shop that's not necessarily "buy the most expensive item and you're set" mentality. I like that. Been hoping for this game to appear here for a long time, and now it did, and it's even free. Get it, play it.

This takes me back. But for those who don't know, this is a really solid Shoot'em up. You had different campaigns that brought different kinds of enemies, you could upgrade your ship to your liking with money you'd get. Not to mention every stage is packed with small secrets. It looks nice visually using pre-rendered 3D sprites and the soundtrack is pretty awesome. For fans of the genre it's easy to recommend, if you're unfamiliar with this time of game give it a shot, you might be surprised.

I want to love Stargunner. Raptor is one my favourite games and this game channels a lot of its spirit, but it falls short of greatness. I've tried immersing myself in it a few times over the decades, but I always bail after an episode or two. Why? I feel like it tries so hard to be complex and replayable that it fails to provide a balanced continuous campaign. The core game mechanics are solid and quite complex, weapons are varied and fun, as are enemies and level environments, but pacing is (potentially) terrible. Every level is bursting with tens of secrets and therein lies Stargunner's downfall. If you're like me and try to explore what the game has to offer to the fullest, you'll replay the first levels a couple of times to learn about the secrets' positions... and then you'll find yourself hilariously overpowered, with the best equipment as soon as two levels into an episode. Then you'll realize none of the secrets matter anymore and dying weakens your main weapon, so you'll stay on the safest course, breezing through the other levels with your dreadnought of superdeath. Rinse & repeat until the game chases you out with tedium, because it doesn't support digging deep into its secrets. It works better with a more casual, less risky approach to the early levels, but I feel like this is a serious design fault. In the end it doesn't even scratch replayability of, say, Tyrian.

This is a side scroller but the similarities to Raiden are abundant - frenetic pace, lots of secrets, scoring high is addictive. But it goes a step further than the arcade classic with the ability to earn credits and buy upgrades. There's just more depth here and the difficulty is well balanced. That we get it for free is the icing on the cake.