Freeware Garden: Sun God Star Bridge

Back when I was young and impressionable I considered Space Harrier to be the apex of both 3D and shoot-'em-up gaming despite it, well, not being exactly 3D. Then again, when everything looks amazingly and thrilling a seven-year-old rarely cares for details. I cared only for blasting weird alien things.

I seem to have not quite outgrown my Space Harrier obsession and that's why I downloaded Sun God Star Bridge the moment I saw it.

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It looked like a competent re-imagining of Sega's classic shmup and happily proved to be one of the best sprite-based Space Harrier clones I have ever played on the PC and the kind of game I really didn't expect to find in a Ludum Dare competition. It quite handily also turned out to be a game that can be either enjoyed online or offline on any Windows, Mac or Linux computer.

In the highly mythological Sun God Star Bridge you play as the ancient Greek god Apollo and travel from planet to planet blasting everything in sight, while admiring the brilliantly retro-esque graphics and the trippy old-fashioned soundtrack. The game is pretty forgiving and thus nothing really gets between you and your magically-flying-into-space enjoyment, unless of course you decide to hunt the perfect high-score, in which case things will get tense and your reflexes will be taxed.

Oh, and do keep in mind that this is a surprisingly hefty game too.