A very nice Space Invaders twist

Reviewed by CommanderVideo on or around 04th Jun 2011

For a $1 game, Crossfire is positively awesome. Especially if you like arcade Space Invader style shooters! And I do.
 
While very similar to the aforementioned classic, Crossfire is so much more than a Space Invaders clone. It’s a genre-building game for an extinct genre. Your ship can only move horizontally, just like the space shooters of yore, but you can move along either the floor or the ceiling with the push of a button.
 
This simple change gives birth to lots of strategic opportunity. Some enemies only shoot down, some can only be attacked from the top, some change directions, etc.
 
We’ve all learned how to dodge vertically moving bullets along a horizontal line, but now you’ve got to manage dodging bullets along two horizontal lines while maintaining focus as you switch from the top to the bottom of the playfield. This simple change, while jarring at first, is an amazingly subtle way to throw a monkey wrench into a tired old genre.
 
I only wish that Crossfire had a little more depth and a few more levels. Also, call me a masochist, but I wish it were more difficult. Still, for $1, this experiment in gameplay is wrapped in such a highly polished package that you simply should not avoid this game.