nearly good

really good

Really Good Has that 'just one more go' factor Free

Not So Good No 2-Player mode

Another Amiga classic that got lost in the depths of time: Scrotax was one of the most bizzare, and indeed most addictive, shooting games I ever played.

Before 3D shooting games such as Doom, Quake and Half Life came about, shooters would generally be either platform based (think Mario with guns, kind of), overhead lost-in-a-maze kind of things, or horizontal or vertical 'space ship' games where you had to shoot all the aliens whilst dodging their bullets. Scrotax doesn't fit into any of these styles. It's kind of half space ship, half platform, yet none of the above!

You play the part of some kind of small red ball, who bounces up and down the screen while monsters fly across the play area from left to right. As you bounce up and down you can also move from left to right across the play area (which is fixed, there is no scrolling) and fire bullets at the monsters who are coming at you from the right. You get points for hitting each monster. If you hit two or more baddies with a single shot then a bonus flies across the screen for you to try and catch - 20 points for hitting two, then the bonus doubles for each additional monster defeated. The monsters don't shoot at you but they get faster, and their numbers increase, as the game progresses.

The game is level based, and about half way through each level a power-up appears in the middle of the screen. Bonuses are pretty typical for this sort of game; faster and more frequent fire power mostly. At the end of each level you have to opportunity to try and pick up 100 bonus points as they fly across the screen and you are then given a textual representation of what to expect in the next level (messages like 'getting harder' and 'getting faster').

The object of the game is simple. Survive as long as you can and get as many points as possible. Whenever I pick this game I the incentive to beat my own personal best score is there just as strong as it was the last time. And once you loose one live frustration easily seeps in and you can end up loosing two or three more in rapid succession.

Those of you who have Amiga emulators can get the game here.