Gravity Force

Gravity Force is a freeware shooter created by Stephan Wenzler for the Amiga in 1989.

The idea is simple: take the spaceship of the videogame Asteroids and its mechanic of movements, and put it inside a kind of platformer/shooter scenario. As you can expect, you control the ship by activating the boosters and rotating left or right. You have to turn 180° and start engines in the reverse direction to slow down. The problem is you are not in space; you are on a planet, inside a cave. This means that you have to consider the gravity force, and you have to pay attention to the cave walls because if you hit them, your ship will be destroyed. Of course, it's just not about avoiding obstacles - otherwise, it would not be a shooter, right? In fact, the cave is full of enemies, and you have to destroy them with your laser if you want to survive. Interestingly, you shoot by moving up with the joystick, and you activate your engine with the fire button - not vice versa. This makes things more complicated and more fun.

But I haven't told you the best part yet. Gravity Force supports two simultaneous players so that you can challenge your friend either on a race or in a dogfight. Personally, I think racing against a friend is the best part of this game, but the choice is yours.

This is the perfect example of why you don't need a big budget to make a fun game.