Astro Marine Corps

I think people who enjoy seeing consoles and computers pushed to their limits in clever ways will find a lot to like here if they can put themselves outside of their comfort zone. So much of the run and gun genre seeks to empower the player with similar types of power fantasies and make the player feel like a one man army, but AMC turns that idea right on its head. You think you’re getting Predator or the later Rambo movies or something, but it turns out you’re actually getting The Thing in AMC 1 and some good old fashioned cosmic horror in AMC 2!

Armalyte

Armalyte isn’t insurmountable, but it does require patience, memorization, and preparation to complete it, let alone get past its first level. For that reason, this game is one that you really want to have save states for if possible so you can practice its toughest bits. If you’re willing to persevere or do whatever it takes to survive (if you catch my drift), you’ll be rewarded with a shoot ‘em up experience that’s genuinely atmospheric and intriguing the whole way through. The world of Armalyte, even with its lack of text, tells a story that makes you want to see it through to the end just to see what the developers came up with. I could have easily turned it off during that fireball sequence for something else, but it immediately drew me in enough to make me want to get past that part and see what else it had lying in wait for me.