Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Raptor: Call of The Shadows is a vertical-scroller shoot-'em-up developed by Cygnus Studios and published by Apogee Software in 1994.

It was initially published for DOS but has since been ported to Windows, iOS, Linux, and Mac OS. The game won Power Play's Best Shareware game of 1994. The Shareware version was released for free at Mountain King Studios (formerly Cygnus Studios) homepage.

The game is a top-down scrolling shooter. You play a mercenary, flying the advanced ship Raptor. You are sent on missions to destroy the enemies of MegaCorps. The game is broken up into three sectors, "Bravo Sector", "Tango Sector", and "Outer Regions". Each sector has nine submissions or "waves", giving us 27 missions. Between each level, you can save your game and upgrade your ship.

Raptor is one of the best PC shoot em' ups ever. Every part of the game gels so well, from the excellent music and sound effects to the incredible map design. The graphics are beautiful too. This is a classic that holds up.