Scrolling shooters. You are probably tired of me bringing up that the heyday of this genre being long gone. That is fine. It seems to be working. We are seeing more scrolling shooting games pop up from the independent developer world. That makes me happy. I mean, I still for the most part suck at them but it is fun blasting stuff. Swabby is a new side scrolling shooter for the Sega Master System and it is pulling on the nostalgia strings. Hard.

Swabby was apparently a maze running character that was built into early Sega Master System. I did not know this. Anyhow, Zeus makes a slight mistake in his effort to resurrect the man/beast from Altered Beast. See, that lightning bolt goes just a wee bit deeper into the ground, missing the man/beast and hitting Swabby instead.

There are three levels in Swabby. Each based on a different Sega classic. The first level, the graveyard, is based on Altered Beast. The second level is based on Sonic the Hedgehog while the third and final level is based on Shinobi. Quite an eclectic mix of levels there. This game certainly has variety.

Okay, onto the information on how Swabby plays. Since this is a sidescrolling shooter featuring a snail, reality is thrown out the window. I mean, a god threw a lightning bolt down and gave this snail these powers. You are only able to have one shot in the air at a time. That makes the proceedings quite hard. Second, Swabby can only take one hit at a time before dying and having to start over.

It is rather jarring to be flying along, roasting bad guys and all of a sudden the screen goes dark. This is how you transition from one level to the next in Swabby. I would love for there to be some kind of boss added to each level, something that lets you know that you are at the end of the level.

Other than that, great work. I hope we see more work on Swabby or a follow up or more from this developer. Keep working dude.

Source: SMSPower forums

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