You’re alone in an empty field when suddenly an army of hideous aliens appears, hungry eyes gleaming as they lurch sickeningly towards you! But you’re not afraid. Fixing the nearest critter with your steely gaze, you smile to yourself. As the heavy metal soundtrack booms in your ears you begin the wanton slaughter in a spray of bullets and bombs. Five minutes later, you emerge victorious, soaked in the sticky blood of your fallen enemies.

The name of the game is Crimsonland, and they aren’t kidding. By the end of every level the ground is so soaked in blood that the landscape is almost completely red. You start off with just a pistol, and enemies begin flowing onto the map from multiple directions. As you kill them they drop weapons and powerups for you to grab and they also give experience points, which doubles as your score. Every so often you’ll get enough experience points that you can get a perk, which is a marginally useful ability for your marine. The perk system is a cool idea, but it has issues. A good fourth of the perks seem dedicated to getting more perks, and none of them last past the current level. The plethora of weapons and interesting powerups make up for this small flaw, however.

Years ago, this game set the standard for casual top-down shooters, and it still remains a seminal classic. It’s easy to get into, the controls are fluid and intuitive, and it’s a blast (pun intended) to watch your enemies fly back after a dead-on hit from your rocket launcher. My biggest gripe is that every single level is pretty much the same: a large, brown, featureless rectangle. Environment obstacles or even a few blocks dropped randomly onto the playing field would really have helped spice things up. The three game modes offer only slightly different playing experiences, but ultimately you shouldn’t come to Crimsonland looking for deep and varied gameplay anyway. You should come to Crimsonland to blow stuff up and rock out. With those goals, you won’t be disappointed.

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