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In this colourful shooter, you play as... something... which shoots... er... other things. Sometimes cute abstract graphics just make things difficult.

Much like Omega's Unyaa Proximo your main goal and source of points - aside from blasting away the enemy with relentless glee - is to absorb the little colourful flakes they drop. You act as a vacuum and suck them in with ease.

It seems the enemies and bullets have some sort of effect based on colour, but the speed of the game is just too fast to tell exactly what does what. That doesn't matter as each level lasts less than 10 seconds - you obliterate everything in sight comfortably (with some tight dodging) - well before you can figure out any specifics.

It could have been so much more, but ultimately falls short. There's no music and the sounds are repetitive, but there is enough in the gameplay to keep you interested for at least a short while (maybe even a medium length while).

Like the aptly named Crush before it, Crumble! is a game fortunate enough to have a simple one-word title which describes itself in exquisite simplicity. Things are crumbling... and you need to survive.

As the levels progress, survival becomes more and more difficult. This may have something to do with the fact that - no matter how much you seem to be succeeding - the cave or whatever you're in is continuously crumbling faster.

Throughout the handful of levels, you'll need to collect 20 gold pieces to advance. Gold are the yellow ones and don't hurt you if they drop on your head. The other coloured ones are rocks. They don't hurt if you slide into them, but they do hurt if they fall on you. Keep that in mind if you don't want to die.

If you love the pixel revolution which is happening, then this game will be like looking at a fine painting by Rubens. The variety is fairly shallow, but welcome when it arrives and the novelty is far from throwaway. It's good while it lasts, so give it a chance and check it out.

In this mini-arcade-game simulation you play as a gray dot. The dot has no story, nothing to defend or collect. Nothing to prove. Except that it wants to hurt the thing in the middle - which is impervious to pain. But try, the little dot will.

Essentially, what it boils down to are the core elements of any shooter. No matter who you are or what you pilot, chances are the actuality of you being harmed are small - several pixels actually - which is what you literally play as here. This will help you get used to your ships dynamic in future games.

Not only that, but the bullet patterns (which are, needless to say manic and beautiful) come from different directions. Not only are you aimed at from the top of the screen, but as shooters like to mix things up on you, from left right and below.

Your only objective is to shoot the bullet shooting beast in the middle of the screen. A tally will indicate how many shots you've managed to pop off over your life span. Press enter to spawn a new ship (note: also resets 'score'). This tech-demo of every shooter imaginable is quite recommended.

EverEternal WinterWorld (sometimes incorrectly written as Ever Eternal Winter World) is an adventure/platform game set to a snowy backdrop with a healthy dose of humour thrown in to the mix.

The story is as follows: Bad guy wants eternal winter. Good guy wants to sleep. Good guy has to stop him anyway, because he was kicked by Old Gramps until he agreed. Along the way, various characters will brighten up your typically cloudy route, like the ever cheerful Companion Pot. Which is, literally, a pot that sits on the ground.

The game is stocked with weapons to collect and upgrade which will help you in various situations. For example when a running jump doesn't help, you can rocket blast (by jumping, then shooting down) to give you an extra boost.

The game is cute enough, with its familiar looking pixelated graphics and the humour goes a long way to enduring this game. If you're into this sort of thing, EEWW will be a bonified hit with you.

Droneswarm is a side scrolling shooter which not only hearkens back - but actually embodies - the 2D sidescrolling games of the 80's. From is slick presentation down to its thumping soundtrack, Droneswarm is the best of this genre I've seen around in a long time.

Made for a SHMUP-DEV competition back in late 2007, you may recognize the head developer's name more recently as the creator of the runaway hit Harpooned.

Far away from the scientific research portrayed in his other offering, Droneswarm is a futuristic take-to-the-skies rumble featuring close-quarters battles with vicious but wonderfully timed and choreographed villains.

Interestingly, the game doesn't reward you with powerups randomly. Instead you are congratulated for accuracy. Shoot enough enemies directly, with less errant bullets, and you fill a meter. When it fills you are given a buddy who shoots along with you. Fill it twice and you have two buddies. It's a novel approach and I for one welcome it over the random power-up drops as seen in numerous games beforehand.

At just one level long (sadly development seems to have stalled since its last release) it isn't much of a challenge for hardened veterans of the genre. For beginners, however, the challenge is more than there. Either way, it's the presentation which shines almost blindingly in this game placing it head and shoulders above other similar offerings.

In this short diving game, you play as the diver in his quest to - well, dive. Hence the title: Dive. As you explore the oceany depths you will naturally encounter a variety of sea creatures along the way. Some friendly, some not so. Further exploration will hinge on your interactions with them.

The sea creatures, fortunately for you, are colour coded. The white ones are neutral and wish you no ill will. They also provide no benefits, aside from the visual. The blueish ones are your friends. Hit the Z key to communicate with them, feel the love and be rewarded with fresh air. As for the others? As I'm sure you'll quickly see, they prove to be quite dangerous. Z, the communication key, will stun these naughty harm-wishing fish.

The balance is there and striking a friendship with your brother fish is obviously key to success. Unfortunately, their pixelated tails have a habit of sailing off screen and out of reach all too often before you have a chance to communicate with them.

Though short - roughly five to ten minutes in total - its your ability to traverse the depths with skill and dexterity which will provide the replay time here. As you begin to increase your skill and dive further, you will notice more enjoyment and variety in the game.

In this fairly manic shooter your objective is to kill the rampaging waves of aliens before they kill you. This objective is made all the more difficult via the fact you're strapped to a curved rail which restricts your movement to left-right only.

Meanwhile, as you flail about trying to determine if one bullet will hit a seperate curved part of your structure before another hits you - and whether you can still dodge regardless - you will be trying to shoot back. Shooting back is done (much like Abuse, TAGAP and the oft-forgotten Easter Avenger) with the mouse while you control the movement with the left-right arrows. This combination of restricted movement and free fire takes some getting used to as the levels themselves are not for the feint of shmup-ness.

The graphics stand up well and manage to suit the gameplay in all its rough-around-the-edges goodness. As mentioned, it is quite difficult to get used to, but decent shoot 'em up fans will find this to be quite a tasty offering.

In this short adventure game, you play as a monk who finds himself at the assistance of a blind, elderly monk. You will perform various simple tasks which will eventually lead you to the games quick conclusion.

What stands out most in this game is the graphics. Simplistically done with brush strokes, they strive not to overwhelm the player, but to subtly highlight the simplistic nature of the story.

Although most of the 'puzzles' in the game are fairly straightforward, the game falls behind by not so clearly labeling things. For example at first it seems you must stay on the screen when you can move left. Selecting inventory can be done with the aid of a hidden menu at the top of the screen. For a game designed in less than a week, these simple drawbacks are forgivable, though.

For an adventure game it's fairly interesting. It's not long or too complicated and only somewhat suffers from back-tracking. For what it is, and with the visual appeal, it is quite a nice package, all up.

In what, for comparisons sake, can best be likened to Within A Deep Forest, you guide a bouncy object through various obstacle laden courses in the inevitable quest towards the finish of each level.

It's not an overly complicated game, but the obstacles employed here are key. For example, the bomb bricks will kill you (naturally) and the arrow bricks will launch you across the screen, avoiding any nasty ground which covered the path towards freedom.

Soon enough the enjoyment declines with the inclusion of wall-jumps. That oh-so-too-frequently-employed post of gaming frustration. Time your hup-hup-boings well and you can find yourself traversing towards freedom. Don't time them well? You'll fall right back down again. Fortunately you can press Enter then Left or Right to speed or slow the game.

While not exceptional, the game does have its good points and can be enjoyable at times. When it's not being frustrating, of course. But that's to be expected in a game of skill and timing.

In this unique Asteroids-like shooter, you take the role of a bird-like creature with the ability to shoot bullets five times as wide as itself in an attempt to destroy dozens of other birds which flap about the screen.

Each bird is worth 100 points on its own and a multiple of that number based on how many you have killed in succession. For example, kill one and its worth 100 points, kill a second straight after and its worth 200. This method of scoring continues until you leave a gap between your kills.

After a short while you will have the hang of the game and will be scoring 5000+ per kill. It's a case of, the better you are at the game, the better you will be at the game. When things get a little hairy, you can launch a bomb at nearby birds for a combo-kill.

Although fairly simple so far (kill birds, use bombs, score points) the real draw is the sounds. There is no music included with the game and the birds only make a twinkle-twankle noise when dispatched with. Kill enough in succession (and you will) and witness the sounds overlapping eachother, forming an impromptu melodic cascade throughout the length of the level.

Pay attention to the circle which bounces from place to place as this is where the birds will flock to - important to know if you wish to avoid them and combo-kill a whole stack at the same time.

While not a totally unique game in and of itself, the Asteroid-like behaviour of the enemies as they scroll from one side wall to the other and top-to-bottom while you're trapped by the boundaries; the strange boss fights every five levels; coupled with the unique musical aspect is enough to warrant a download and even a keep in your games folder.