DOWNLOAD JAVA GAME (320X240): ALPHA WINGS

Alpha Wing should feel pretty familiar to just about every R-Type and space-shooter fan out there. Aliens are taking over, wiping out the Intergalactic Alliance, and it's come down to one ship to take them all out. Yes that's right, YOU are the galaxy and mankind's only hope! But generic story aside, this game is high quality from start to finish. The game follows your progress as you pilot through space and into the various alien worlds, on your way to rub them out.

Gameplay starts fairly standard with dodging and firing upon little floater enemies who dance around in chorus lines. But as you go along, enemies become increasingly complex and begin firing back, taking evasive action and even using a few special attacks. The enemies, for their size are illustrated wonderfully. All sprites in this game look consistent yet exude personality; Some ships sprint into frame then pull back as if they've just noticed your vessel, which makes sense. And their AI is kicked up several notches the farther you get into your journey.

The first thing that you'll likely notice about this game is just how gorgeous it is. A lot has been done with the art, especially at these tiny dimensions, and later levels in the alien caves and compounds are ripe with Contra-like detail. The backgrounds scroll on a different layer than sprites, so you really get a sense of depth while moving about. Along the way, you'll also begin encountering enemies locked into their surroundings, or even obstacles in those surroundings (like walls that seal up in front of you). Detailed effects such as mushroom explosions and chunks of metal that fly out of destroyed vessels make the game anything but static, and even your weapon upgrades get pretty cool looking as you go along.

Essentially, you're just shooting and dodging for 10 or so levels, but the care with which Macrospace handled this title really makes it a fun journey. There are three boss battles where the scrolling stops and you hover to kick some giant sprite butt, dodging the various attacks they throw at you. Controls on the game are thankfully tight, but how well you do will ultimately come down to your phone, because you're gonna be giving whatever arrow (or 4,6,8,2) keys you have a pretty good working over. Your ship moves in 8 directions, for the really gifted cell gamers. You also have the option to either have auto-fire enabled, so your craft is always shooting (give that right thumb a rest) or you can set it to manual, to make sure every shot is timed just right. Pressing the '5' button enables a shield, which will run down your shield energy meter until it's empty. This will protect you temporarily from fire, but not collisions.

The game actually gets pretty difficult along the way. Three lives, and it's Game Over. What's great is that when a level is beaten, it's then unlocked for future play, so you won't have to meddle through your least favorite levels to get to your favorites; Just select it from the menu. In addition to keeping track of your progress, you can also submit high scores within your phone or online (oddly enough, the scoring system even includes smilies and a dictionary. Wha?). Music is missing (you get a short title track at bootup, and beyond that it's bleeps and blips), but that's not uncommon for an application this size.

Enjoy this game, download here