Universal Warrior

Universal Warrior is a sci-fi shooter created by Zeppelin Games for the Amiga, released in 1993. Later it was ported to MS-DOS.

The game designed and programmed by Mark Gornall and Alex Clark looks a bit like Alien Breed, but in this case, you are remotely controlling a robot, and you have to enter several maze-like arenas to compete for money and glory. Money, of course, can be spent on improvements, as well as on repairs. The management part, where you select the components to add and improve to your robot, constitutes an essential part of the game, and it's as fun as the shooting part, if not more. This doesn't mean the fighting part is easy, don't underestimate the enemies because it won't be easy to survive. In several cases, your robot will end up very damaged. But winning despite many damages and malfunctions is actually very rewarding.

Graphics and audio are only average quality, but the controls, the difficulty level, the management part, the puzzles are all excellent examples of programming and game design. Universal Warrior is really a hidden gem. Whether you knew this game or not, it's time to play it again!