Barbados

Some hot arcade action for you to heat things up with on this frigid friday. From the Yoshio Ishii house of game design, Barbados is a Shockwave action arcade game with instantly familiar gameplay.

The objective of the game is to collect all of the dots on the play field by moving your ship around the game's concentric circles while avoiding the enemy. Press the space bar to increase speed, use the arrow keys for changing lanes: left moves one lane inward, right moves one lane out. You may only change lanes in one of the four lane change zones.

The enemy travels in predictable patterns, changing its pattern with each new level. It does not come after you. The challenge is in the fact you cannot change lanes whenever you wish. So, it will take a sharp eye and fast reflexes to navigate the field and collect all the dots without crashing into the enemy.

With excellent packaging right down to the menuing system, Barbados is a well polished game with addictive gameplay that will keep you busy for a while. The soundtrack, although repetitious at times, fits the style of the arcade action well and helps give the game its commercial feel. Simple, fast action fun. Click.

Check out other games by Ishii-san previously reviewed here.