Browsing through the file archives the other day, I came across "Mercury," which, for some reason, I had overlooked when it originally came out. After looking at the screenshots, I immediately rebuked myself for overlooking it, and downloaded it. I was not disappointed.

"Mercury" is a side-scroller in which you pilot a spaceship. The arrows keys allow you to move around a certain perimeter on the left-side of the screen (You can't move too far right), and the [2nd] key fires your trusty blaster that is regulated by a rechargeable energy meter. And like in other Patrick Davidson games, [Apps] allows you to quickly save and exit the game and [.] lets you quit and not save. The object of the game is to destroy whatever you can that is in your path while taking as little damage as possible. As you travel on your quest to achieve the goal (Which I have yet to achieve, maybe because I lack some essential side-scrolling skills), certain enemies drop power-ups, from health kits to weapon upgrades. And trust me, having a double-cannon does help a lot.

What makes "Mercury" so much fun is that it looks and plays like a side-scroller you may have played on Genesis or SNES (Games like "Zero Wing"). The graphics are outstanding, and the game runs very smoothly. There are also portions of the game where it pauses at a certain area until you defeat all the enemies, which gives you the added challenge of actually having to destroy things instead of just dodging the enemies and hoping you make it to the end. There is also collision detection with the walls as well as enemies, so, make sure you can steer well (If you can't, you'll learn quickly).