At its core, Mutant Storm is a mix of gameplay from arcade favorites Robotron: 2084 and Tempest with a splash of Asteroids thrown in. Your mission is simple: survive. And you’ll fight hard to survive as swarms of vicious mutant enemies ravage your little gunship. It takes every bit of concentration for you to survive, as you need to move your ship with the keyboard and aim with the mouse. Thankfully, you can move in pretty much every direction, which is a requirement, since sitting still equals a quick death, and it won’t be the mutants that are doing the dying.

The fighting environments are typically ring-shaped arenas which often change in size during gameplay. To make things crazier, the camera zooms in and out during play. Sometimes the zoom is a boon, as it’ll help you find an escape route, while other times it can lead you straight to your doom. Along with all the zooming and resizing, the arenas can also tilt and rotate on an axis, beefing up the frenetic feel of the game.

The enemies in Mutant Storm are cast from the classic arcade mold. You’ve got the small and stupid ones that attack in massive waves, and then there’s the big boys, who take multiple hits and dish out massive damage. There’s not much by way of AI here, everything in the game just wants to kill you, it’s as simple as that. As you play, you’ll pick up score multipliers, which will quickly boost scoring opportunities, however, they also infuriate the mutant baddies, who’ll become more aggressive the higher your multiplier is. And just when you thought the creepy critters were bad, crystalline asteroids appear to crush your ship into so much dust. Just like the deadly asteroids from the game of the same name, these space rocks break apart when shot, becoming smaller and more hazardous until you can sweep up all the pieces. It’s a good thing there are multiple-fire power ups and shield boosters floating around, or you’d never stand a chance.

Mutant Storm’s graphics reflect a psychedelic retro-arcade feel. While they’re not something you could hold up against most modern 3D titles, they still make for fun eye-candy. There’s plenty of neon coupled with gobs of bright colors that contrast well with the black background of the arena. Mutant baddies have nicely detailed movement as they crawl, hop or fly towards you in their quest to deliver their deadly payloads. Explosions follow the retro-arcade style of "burst rings" which make great little fireworks displays when several dozen occur at once. Weapon effects will remind you a lot of games like R-Type, especially as the weapons get upgraded. The devastating Smart Bomb is a thing of beauty, especially when it wipes out obstacles and opponents alike.

A basic soundtrack accompanies Mutant Storm, which is fine by me, since classic arcade titles never wasted time on the musical score. The single background tune locks you into a frantic mindset, which is exactly what you’ll need to stay alive. The sounds of weapons firing and mutants exploding are just what you’d expect for this homage to the arcade classics.

Fans of arcade-style shooters of old will find weeks of enjoyment in Mutant Storm. With over 89 levels and dozens of enemy types, you’ll be hard pressed to stop playing. I guarantee you; many an hour will be lost to this game as you try to survive "just one more level."

It’s nice to see a new title appear that has such roots-styled appeal. If you’re in need of a simple to control yet powerfully challenging game, Mutant Storm won’t let you down. And you just can’t beat a $20 price tag for this much fun!