Game of the Day - UniWar S

 UniWar S (UniWars?) is an old school shooter that crosses Galaxian with Phoenix and throws in your little brother.

The first stage of UWS is pretty much a straight knock-off of Galaxian.  In stage 2, a mysterious dotted line appears below your ship (and remains unused) and the enemies behave like they do in the game Phoenix - appearing from nowhere and shaking, shimmying and dive-bombing their way into battle.

Then comes the 3rd stage.  The aliens are tougher to hit - they have a rotating shield you have to get by and it's the first appearance of "your little brother" (as I call it).  The invading ships drop little aliens down (paratroopers?) and they go below your ship, below the dotted line, and walk back and forth poking you with a spear-thing from beneath.


It's the constant poking from behind when you are trying to concentrate that reminds me of a little brother.  Although they look and act more like little devils (all alien and pitchforky).


So, as you are shooting the aliens in their ships above, you have to look out for the poking from below.  One spear and you are dead.  You never realize how little you look at your ship in games like Galaxian until this game shows up and makes you look above and below at all times.  If you are one of those folks that can pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, then you will excel at UWS.

The way to avoid the little hot pokers is to stay on the line part of the dotted line (as opposed to in-between) or wait 'til they poke and then scoot by quickly (they usually don't poke twice in a row).


If it weren't for this feature, UniWar S would just be another clone from the early 80s, but adding the little prickwads makes it a much more challenging and fun game.

There are only four levels before it repeats - but with a stronger attack force.  By the way, occasionally a King Ship comes by - if you blast it, you can get rid of the poke-dudes.