Matt McFarland  - Score: 10.00

Prototype starts you off at an attacked mars colony.  You see a lot of debris and the whole feeling puts you in the mood for a lot of chaos!  You are able to tell where the powerups are at because only certain enemy types present them when destroyed.  They are these harmless bots that appear, walk around, or maybe just fly around a bit, and then leave the screen.  Once you see one you're just inclined to destroy it right away.  There are lots of different powerups.  You can get cluster bombs, missiles, and two balls (one on top, one below) that shoot along with you.  The greatest feature is the special powerup you get, which comes in different colors.  It's a probe of some sort that is chained to your ship.  If you hold down the second button (in game pad, which I highly recommend, and what is completely configurable) you can move the probe around and aim in in any direction.  It can protect you as well, but the powerups you get are very interesting.  The game takes a lot from R-Type, from the enemy types, to the feel of the level, and the probe reminds me of the probe thing that you could use in R-Type, although it is different.  Although it does have some aspects of R-type (even the force thing too, forgot to mention that) it really shines!  The game's polish is to the maximum, in fact, it's right up there above and beyond many shareware games out there!!!  The entire level is filled with a lot of detail, from different enemy types, from different level areas, destroyable and animated structures and so on and so fourth.  When playing this game I forget it's even a freeware game, and feel like I'm playing something that's been made and sells!!  I really love this game, and even though I find it more challenging then I usually like, I just can't get enough of it! After I play it I just want to play it again, and again, and again.  I haven't enjoyed a game like this in years, and I really hope to see this game completed!  I would like to suggest to the author to allow flipping the probe from 8 different directions by double tapping the probe-control button.  That would make controlling the probe a bit easier, but still it's fine the way it is!

Neil Yates  - Score: 10.00

After seeing this game I went back and lowered all the other scores so that they would stay relatively coherent. It's basically a remake of R-Type but adds some cool new features like being able to point your force in any direction. Overall this mechanic isn't quite as good as R-Types method, but it's not far off and gets brownie points for originality. The enemies are a little less dynamic than R-Type but the trade off is that it's faster paced and more exciting than the original. It's also not insanely hard which is great. The music and sound effects are absolutely brilliant and the graphics are almost as good (some of the ships and robots look a little plastic). You may be wondering why I'm comparing this to a top of the range classic shooter when I should be comparing it to others in the competition? Well it's just that good, in fact some may call me a heretic for saying this, but I think it's even better than the original RType. This game is pretty much perfect, ‘nuff said!

Sean Doherty  - Score: 8.60

Go Orb! Go Orb!  Ok, the Orb is very cool!  In a nutshell, this game has high quality graphics, sound, and game play.  Just Couple the previously mentioned features with a cool Orb and you have a very nice game!  That said, I did find a few bugs:

- Alt-Tab in Full Screen

- Pressing ESC exits the entire game?

Matt McFarland  - Score: 9.00

Funky Space reminds me of a Defender type game where you destroy all the baddies as you move around hunting more.  The enemy behaviors are astoundingly good, and I really enjoyed taken' em out.  Collect the blue orbs and you get stronger, eventually, you get UBER.  The background morphs and depicts you starting out in space and going to a planet.  The baddies that appear are in variety, and they behave differently and everything reacts to everything in a nice'n'smooth manner.  The game gets hard when you reach the planet, but if you zigzag right and left and up and down your missiles take care of those annoying jumpy dudes.  Then the snakes appear (the boss) - Just fly around and shoot em down.  The game was easy at first but does become an enjoyable challenge, the controls were smooth, the enemies were neat and behaved well, and the game overall was very, very fun!  I really enjoyed this little demo and I'd love to see more levels!  Definitely quality game play here!

Neil Yates  - Score: 9.00

Funky Space is very different from most of the other entries in that you can move in two directions rather than being forced into one. Another interesting feature is that your ship powers up as the game progresses, giving this game a pseudo RPG feel. The graphics are nothing short of brilliant making this Funky Space one of the best looking in the competition. The only real problem with it is that it can be a little repetitive but the pure excitement factor does a good job of masking that to the point where it's not an issue unless you play for extended periods of time. The sound is of good quality and works very well. Overall Funky Space is one of the best and most original titles I've seen in this competition.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 8.00

Very Nice!  The graphics are nicely and really fit the style of the game.  I really enjoyed the game play and liked how the game got increasingly harder as I collected more energy balls, Although, the game did seem to get a bit repetitive.  I am guessing the repetitive nature of the game is caused by only having one level.  Also, I probably would have preferred different music, but the music in the game worked well.

Matt McFarland  - Score: NA

This is a beautiful game!  The atmosphere is wonderful.  Unfortunately after I lose lives the game crashes and I have to CTRL ALT DEL to get back into windows.  Because I can't continue to try the game over and over again with it breaking my machine I am not judging it.

Neil Yates  - Score: 9.00

This game is set underwater and it achieves a really nice level of realism, you really feel like you're under the sea! Presentation is where this game scores big marks, whilst the actual quality of the art work involved is nothing special the special effects and general polish really brings this game's visuals up to a high notch. One problem with the graphics is that in order to achieve the bottom of the see it looks like they've used Bryce which in my experience produces very high polygon stuff, which could be why the game seemed to struggle a little on my fairly good spec PC. The actual game play is nothing special but it's fun and rewarding which in itself puts it above average. I'd like to see this developed into a full game, though I would the like pacing to be increased.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 8.00

In this extremely well done game, your goal is basically to destroy and dodge all of the attacking enemies.  I have to admit that I enjoyed the graphics, sound, and game play more than any of the other games in the competition.  In fact, the graphics are extremely realistic and bright for this type of game.  The GUI, Font, and Sound Effects are all well done and I was glad to see a game of this caliber in the competition.  Really, the only issue I had with the game was when the game end it appears like the game hangs.  However, I realized that it just takes a long time to say "game over".  Overall, this game has the best overall package.

Matt McFarland  - Score: 8.00

Velocity the bee is was I heard someone call a "cute-em-up" - the polish is up to par with shareware, and I could sooo see this on Real Arcade!!  I found the game to have an adventurous theme that was a really nice touch.  The controls were pretty nice, the enemies were pretty interesting, and the power up system was unique (collect 3 honey jars and then you get a boost) - what made it unique was that the additional bullets you shoot go in odd directions, but it still was done well.  I laughed at the end after beating the boss, its worth reading what Allefant put in there!  As far as the boss goes, umm I didn’t do anything, the hornet just flew by and it said "You beat the boss!" so I think there's a bug there.   The game was pretty smooth, but my biggest gripe was that I just felt like the level was too long.  It felt like multiple levels instead of one level.  Another problem I had with the game is I think the Score deal in the upper left corner looks out of place and is too big.

Neil Yates  - Score: 8.00

Velocity the Bee is one of my favorites in this competition mixing great presentation, polish and fun to great effect. You take on the roll of a Bee who got up on the wrong side of the bed and started shooting up every other insect in sight. A major strong point of the game is the artwork, especially the backgrounds which animate to make you feel like you're really in the location. Not only do they animate but they also dynamically move depending on the stage you get to which adds to the illusions even further. The game play itself isn't very original (but I don't think any games in this comp are) but is solid and does contain some interesting enemy attack patterns. Overall Velocity the Bee is a brilliant and lively game with some serious commercial potential.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 8.60

Velocity the Bee is one of the best games in this competition and probably the most polished game in the competition period.  Basically, you shoot wave of insects after wave of insects.  I really like the transition between the areas and the graphics and sound are extremely well done.  Interestingly enough, the first time I played the game, I thought it was like Joist and I didn't even notice it wasn't until I died; that might have been fun as well.  Overall, this game is solid and well done!  In fact, I can't really fault Velocity the Bee for anything except on a personal preference I like SubSurface a little more.

Matt McFarland  - Score: 9.00

Vezgard has it all, the classic main menu, nice plastic looking graphics, and smooth game play.  Although I liked the graphics and music all together, I'm going to focus on the game play...  The game is difficult with a keyboard, so I highly recommend using your game pad if you want to enjoy this.  After I plugged in the game pad, I have to admit.. I was completely immersed into the game!  I really felt like I was controlling the ship, thus the controls in this game are perfect IMHO.  You start in a city, where you shoot down a bunch of enemy ships that seem to drop off these huge coins which have the letter V inscribed on them (V for Vezgard, heh) - The game kept me interested as you can tell much effort was put into the level design.  Although the game is lacking in structures and the "flying through a base" feel - the game is filled with tons of different enemy types and various ways to deal with them.  The game seems to also have some secrets too!  I really loved how you can use enemy homing missiles to hit other enemy targets, which is a lot of fun!  Nothing is missed, it just seems perfect how the level progresses.  It never gets too repetitive, and it just keeps you interested the whole way through.  The game wasn't that challenging, but I still really enjoyed it.  The boss was very enjoyable too, destroying off sections just made it really fun.  I also liked how bigger ships in the game were almost impossible to destroy, but you could actually use the enemies weapons against them by having their missiles land into their big ships.  The replay value is very high, because the strategies you can pull off in this game are pretty fun.  All together, the game isn’t hard, but its fun! And fun is where it's at folks!

Neil Yates  - Score: 8.00

Vezgard is a pretty nice shmup with a lot of flare and is quite fun. This game has some pretty nice dynamic enemy attack patterns which serve to make this game well above average in this competition. The ship moves a nice speed and your weapons feel pretty powerful which is something I like to see in a shooter. The level pacing was really good with lots of new enemy types appearing frequently which keeps the game play fresh and interesting. The graphics and general polish aren't great and it seems to be lacking any sound effects. The music isn't that great either. With supped up visuals and sound this game could have been really brilliant, but as it stands it's 'merely' very good.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 5.40

Good start for a game.  However, this game needs to be tweaked a fair amount in order improve playability.  I like the ships, the background, and the action in the game.  Although, I felt the controls were very sensitive and many times I was actually placed on objects after spawning.  Also, the sound was not great.  Lastly, the animation of the homing missiles seemed to be fixed at certain angles.

Matt McFarland  - Score: 6.00

Glowy is neat little game that is filled with Glowing vectors which is inspired by Geo Wars.  You use the arrow keys to control your ship, and use the Z key to start firing.  If you tap the Z key you'll shoot a different weapon, and if you let the bullets touch the blue circle around your ship you charge your weapon.  I thought the weapon system was pretty unique.  Considering that you charged with lots of enemies, and lots of bullets the weapon system works well.  It's a sacrifice, do you shoot everything or do you dodge everything to charge your weapon?  My only complaint is the power ups go away too quickly.  I charge my weapon and in about a second of using it the charge is already gone.  I really wish that the charge lasted a BIT longer.  The level is pretty difficult, and knowing it helps.  The way some of the enemies surround you make it very hard to dodge them and the bullets.  The final boss is a big wheel like thing that hordes TONS of bullets at you, I mean, tons!! The bullets are pretty through, as they spiral, or come out in circles, etc.  The game was alright, I wish it was a bit easier and the power ups lasted a bit longer.

Neil Yates  - Score: 9.00

Glowy is a shooter horizontal in the style of manic vertical shooters such a DoDonPachibut at the same time which shades of Gradius and other memo shooters. It uses pretty much the same firing system as DoDonPachi a system that basically allows you to fire either a direct fire beam or a weaker wide shot based on a single button which adds a lot of extra game play and in my opinion is a great addition. The boasts some well done vector art which in this case works really well and makes the game feel quite polished. It's not an easy game and will require you dodge a lot which leads to an intense atmosphere, something I like in shooters. The enemies have a large variety of interesting attacks which require you to do a bit of thinking as well as some fairly spectacular bullet patterns. Unfortunately it didn't appear to have any sound which is a real shame as this is an otherwise brilliant game.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 6.60

This is a great example of a game that can be made without any art.  The game uses geometrical shapes for the sprites, bullets, and background.  Overall, this actually makes the game look very nice.  Although, I think the bullets are a bit big in some cases.  On the other hand, the game play is really well done.  The game play reminds me of some of the old horizontal shooters from back in the day at the arcade.  On the other hand, the sound is weak; well, it would be week if it had sound?  Nicely done!

Matt McFarland  - Score: 7.00

Vector Scape 2 is another interesting shmup in this competition.  I really enjoy the game's controls and its awesome power ups.  The particle effects are also a joy to see.  The game features a lot of great detail, but there were a few things that frustrated me.  First, I just think the level is entirely too long, it would have left a better impression on me had it been 50% smaller.  Because of it's length, it starts to feel like a chore to get to the boss.  It IS lots of fun, don’t get me wrong, but because you can’t seem to recharge your secondary weapons or bombs, you're screwed if you use them all.  I was collecting the power ups, yet the ammo wasn’t increasing, so I feel that is either a bug, or a game mechanic I don’t like.  The game was a lot of fun to play; there are loads of different enemy types, tons of different movement patterns, and lots of cool weapons to try out.  The level is way too long, but the controls, the enemies, the boss, and all the details are great!  We have a lot of great things in here so that is definitely a plus.  If they continue this game, I will hope that they shorten this level and allow ammo accumulation.  Overall, I still think a great game with lots of potential, and if it is continued I'll definitely keep my eye on it.

Neil Yates  - Score: 7.00

This is another example of a game which managed to nail the fun aspect (for me at least). Vector Scape's pacing feels almost perfect; fast enough to be enjoyable whilst not hurting your eyes. The graphics aren't great and there is definite lack of visual detail but it's still not bad. The main problem I had with this was the momentum on the ship's movement; I often found it near impossible to dodge bullet storms because my ship wouldn't move when I told it to. This kind of movement is alright in a game where there isn't much to dodge, but VS2 throws a lot of bullets at you. Overall it's a neat game, which although repetitive and a little frustrating in places is still fun to play.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 7.40

Vector Scape is a vector graphics shooter where you pick up different weapon upgrades along the way.  For the most part, the game is fun and I enjoyed the look and feel of the game.  Also, Vector Scape does a good job with matching the sound with the game play.  I have to admit that I wasn't a big fan of the way the bullets were being fired.  In some cases it seemed as though enemy units where firing bullets more like a particle effect then an actually bullet.  Also, the Boss is bind of hard to hit with all those bullets.  Lastly, if you hold down the Blue Plasma weapon the performance of the game really suffers.  Overall, the game has potential with additional tweaking.

Matt McFarland  - Score: 8.00

Critical Blast 2 is a blast!  The game contains one mean level though, and you really don’t want to die, because if you do, you start from the beginning!  There ARE save points, but they are few and far between.  The power up system is directly based off of GRADIUS, minus the options (those little glowing balls in GRADIUS are called "options") - The level design, completely based off of a mix of LIFEFORCE and GRADIUS.  The boss, reminds me of GRADIUS.  The game however, is very good!  The level design was carefully put together; the game has a lot of game play polish.   You can use your game pad if you run the configuration program, I recommend using full screen, and then go to controls, and click on one of the direction keys and use your game pad and bam you're in game pad mode!  The game is HARD at first, you'll get frustrated if you don’t adapt quickly.  You'll need to use the RIPPLE weapon and you'll want to have some speed (especially when you're in the part where it scrolls fast!!!  The level has so many intricate parts in it, I just don’t like the sparse save-points that much.  I would like to see more levels in this game, and I'd like it to be less punishing!!  The final boss is very cool; I like how it changes the more you damage it!!

Neil Yates  - Score: 6.00

The main problem I had with Critical Blast 2 was working out the controls. It uses WASD control and, would you believe it the 'c' key to fire. What’s wrong with cursor keys and Z? Anyway control problems aside this game is pretty good and does most things right. The sound effects are pretty good and the music is above average (especially since a lot of entries had no music). The graphics aren't exactly brilliant but they aren't bad either, they do their job well enough. Something I didn't like about CB2 was the slow pace and relatively weak primary fire which as a direct result made the game a little boring. If the speed and firepower aspect had been increased then I think I would have given this game a much better score. One main redeeming aspect of Critical Blast 2 was the well designed and fairly dynamic use of terrain.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 6.60

I like the game, it is kind of fun.  The level is designed well, but the Boss is really hard.  On my machine the game plays on a little window; without changing any of the setting, Also, the background graphics are a bit on the week side.  However, the game is playable and has some promise.

Matt McFarland  - Score: 8.00

Shmester 5000 is a pretty original shmup.  In this game you really don’t get fired at, but you have lots of dodging to do!!  I LOVED the graphics in this game, I also loved the power up and shields system!  Whenever you destroy an enemy you have a chance of a flashy ball appearing.  You want to collect as many as those as you can, because they improve your shields (which are these balls that circle the player) - If you want, you can press the X key and press up and the shields are sacrificed and you have an updated weapon.  If you want your shields back, you can always downgrade your weapon and your shield returns.  Because you can collect more and more of those power up-balls, you can really power up your weapon to full and have full shields by the time you hit the boss.  The laser gun is the most powerful weapon, and although it can destroy everything in its path, you can’t move at all while you use it!!  That makes an interesting twist to the game play, because you have to do a lot of moving if you want to survive.  The game focuses mostly on dodging obstacles and wiping out enemies in your path.  The boss was pretty clever! BUT, the boss was way too easy with the laser beam.   I also thought those balls were bullets at first, but soon found out that's the power up system!  I think the game is pretty good for what it is, but I wish the level was a bit longer, and the boss was a bit harder.  I would love to see more of this game as I think it has great potential.  Although the graphics are awesome, the sound is cute, and the game play is original, the game just didn’t sing to me.  It's really not my favorite type of shmup, but if it were shareware and featured with some levels I'd probably buy it for sure.

Neil Yates  - Score: 5.00

This game has an absolutely brilliant artistic style and flare, so much so that it almost dwarfs the game play. It plays a lot like classic horizontal memo shooters like R-Type and Gradius, but the enemies don't seem to shoot anything. My personal view is that this is a good thing as it results in much less frustrating game play, no hidden bullets catching you off guard. Unfortunately I found this game rather slow and at times a little boring as I battled my way through the level. I think a shooter with this art style has good potential to sell really well if it were ever to be made into a commercial game, however I feel the game play would need to be livened up a little.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 6.00

This game has really nice graphics and the level design is done well.  However, it is often hard to see the enemies; they seem to appear from no where at times.  Also, it is a bit difficult to tell which background objects will kill you in which will not at times.  Overall, I like the game; well done.

Matt McFarland  - Score: 6.00

Laser Assault 3 starts you off in a nebula, where you are heading for earth (according to the level name!) - You get assaulted by a few different baddies and all have their own weapons.  The most interesting of the baddies are the ones that curve when they move.  The others really just move forward, but the balls can be dangerous as they release their spikes and hurl at you if you decide to fly in their path.  The game is fast paced, but I found it to be too repetitious.  The game would be fun, if we had a different style of attacks, and maybe some obstacles.  Some of the enemies are overlapping each other, and it appears that they might be somewhat randomly generated?  Not too sure.  The boss was challenging!  It moves around, and has different styles of attacks.  The game is fun, but the game is also too repetitious for me.  I did find the controls easy, and I did enjoy blowing up a bunch of guys, so it wasn't too bad!

Neil Yates  - Score: 7.00

Technically this game is nothing special but the creator has got the most important thing right, fun. Too many games seem to work on the technical aspects of gameplay rather than making it fun and I'm glad to see that Laser Assault 3 is not one of them. The enemies are fairly basic and the weapon upgrades standard but the speed of play and just general excitement of blowing stuff up makes this game well above average in this competition. The graphics are certainly nothing special and are of low quality, but even still this game is definately one of my favourites.

Sean Doherty  - Score: 5.40

In Laser Assault 3 you start the game by returning to Earth while destroying different types of Enemies along the way.  Right off, I noticed that there was no music on the title screen and I didn’t think the sound really matched the game.  The graphics kind of lack color and don't make me all that excited about the game.  That said, the game play is actually pretty fun with one notable exception.  The game seems to get faster and faster as you progress though the first level.  It kind of makes me think that by level three or four it would be unplayable.  Overall, this is a good game that needs to be tweaked.