Standard Space Invaders clone
This shoot 'em up from Finland is one of those games which isn't exactly original or innovative but which remains a fun excursion and is a perfect time waster for high score junkies, but which is otherwise entirely forgettable. Very much in the style of Space Invaders or Galaxian, this is a single screen space shooter which features a typically disposable and unnecessary plot which revolves around a lone space pilot returning from his holiday to discover that his space station has been overrun by marauding aliens. That's all there is thankfully, and after a brief cutscene explaining all this, Avenger gets down to business. As in the aforementioned classics, gameplay simply requires players to blast the daylights out of wave after wave of incoming alien ships, with controls limited to moving left and right and of course firing. In true Galaxians style, the enemies swoop around the screen, coming out of formation to attack you and which adds to the challenge. One of the few interesting features to be found here is the two-up mode, which allows players to team up and take on the aliens side by side, but apart from this there is little of note. Visually, Avenger is unimpressive, with typical sci-fi themed sprites and backgrounds and which get repetitive quickly. Gameplay too is equally simple and while the game does provide some enjoyable action for a short time, its lack of variation does soon drag, making this one for dedicated high score fans only. There are far better examples of the 2D scrolling shooter genre out there, ranging from Xenon and Xenon 2 to Uridium and Zynaps and these might be better investments of your time.
