Space Shooter with Clever Increase in Challenge

Where Scavenger excels is in its difficulty system, and its level of polish. The controls are very smooth--everything is controlled with the mouse, and the levels introduce new features and problems gradually. Scavenger's difficulty system is particularly clever: rather than simply making enemies more numerous or powerful, each difficulty level ads some new feature to complicate your life. For example, at the second level, there's gravity, constantly dragging you down to the bottom of the screen, so you must be firing your jets periodically to prevent contact with lower walls (any wall contact damages your shields); at the next, you have a limited amount of fuel for each level, and have to husband it carefully. This considerably increases the game's replay value--playing it on a higher difficulty level presents new challenges, not just more stuff.

Turn Extraterrestrials Extra-Crispy

Remember the Wing Commander series? Space sims, fast action, evolving story line... How come they don't make games like that any more?

Well, turns out they do, at least in Poland. Space Interceptor really satisfies the space sim jones, features great graphics (albeit wooden voice acting), and its only flaw, really, is its short playtime. But for $10 bucks, who can complain?