PICONIAN

You have been tasked by the Federal Council with taking down the fleet of orbital platforms being used by the Piconian forces to subjugate the people of Earth. The secrecy of this mission means that just the one craft has been manufactured, but it’s fast and reasonably well armed with bidirectional lasers to either blast segments off the platforms until they explode or, if the pilot is skilled enough, place a shot directly into the reactor core.

Piconian is based on the Eighties classics shoot-’em-up Bosconian, but some features have been left out. The most important omission are the formations which attack the player to encourage them to clear the stage quickly, and without that sense of urgency the game’s longevity suffers.

What’s remains is still reasonable and actually quite fun, however it won’t hold your attention for a long time compared to either the coin-op or Janusz Chabowski’s more recent Atari 8-bit version.

core. down the middle and into the [PICO-8] Planting a shot straight

[PICO-8] Chip away at the defences to earn more points.