Black Widow
A freeware remake of the 1982 Atari arcade game that retains its retro graphics.
Black Widow is a challenging arena shooter game originally created by Atari as a standalone arcade game in 1982, adapted for the Mac in this faithfully vectortastic remake.
The player controls a spider which is, ironically, being hunted down by a variety of insects on its web. To defeat the insects the spider can fire projectiles in any joystick-friendly direction while moving around the web independently. There are restrictions to both actions though: only a few projectiles can be present on the screen if more are to be fired, and each level may contain some uncrossable web strands.
It's fairly easy to pick the game up without even looking at the instructions (although it is helpful to know in advance which bugs are and are not harmful to the player). However, the rapidly increasing difficulty and lack of a cohesive backstory will dissuade most from continuing beyond a few attempts.
Pros
- A quality free game remake that will appeal to nostalgic baby boomers
Cons
- Difficulty curve that doesn't necessarily appeal to modern audiences
- Controls don't translate well to a keyboard