Small Iron

A fun way to kill some time. This little side-scroller, shoot 'em up will keep you jumping and shooting for hours.

If you can look past the basic and sometimes ugly graphics, the game hides a decent old-school feel. You begin by selecting a wanted poster. The order is irrelevant because you can beat any stage with your initial powers. The only exception is the final boss that unlocks after you beat everyone else. Because you only have a gun with unlimited ammo and the ability to jump, there isn't much to see. By defeating the wanted criminal and completing the stage, you can obtain new weapons. It's a nice feature, but it's not that practical. Weapons, as far as I know, do not deal much damage to bosses and some are completely useless. The only one you want is the machine gun that can take bosses out fast. There is a lot of platforming and shooting on the stages. Each comes with a simple mechanics so it’s not all copy-paste. They're also really challenging because it's very easy to die. The problem is that falling into a hole immediately kills you. And there’s a lot of those in every stage. Basic enemies aren't difficult to defeat. Again, a pistol does an excellent job of eliminating everything. Enemies drop pizza slices that replenish your health and provide ammunition for your secondary weapons. Each enemy slain fills a bar, and when it's full, you gain an extra life. This can be easily grinded everywhere because enemies respawn when you come back. There's one nasty bug in the game. Sometimes the stage doesn't end when you defeat a boss. Since you can only quit and not return to the main menu, all your progress is lost.