This is the two hundred tenth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred tenth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is sending a fleet of spaceships to oppose us. It’s Falling Skies, by Ironmonger Games, and — like the last entry — is ruining my intro format by not having a tagline in the bundle at all.

The itch.io page for Falling Skies describes it as a “modern” take on the arcade classic Asteroids. But that is not really accurate. Falling Skies is a shoot ’em up, having more in common with Space Invaders than Asteroids. The player’s ship is always pointing upwards, and while it can move around the screen there’s no Newtonian thruster physics here. One stage does feature a bunch of asteroids, but they don’t drift around and break apart like they do in Asteroids. In most stages, enemy ships enter from the top of the screen, firing their lasers downwards, and players must maneuver underneath them to shoot them, while avoiding getting hit. It will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s played an arcade shoot ’em up from the 1980s or 1990s.

As shoot ’em ups go, Falling Skies is pretty simple. There are only a few enemy types spread over its five stages, and players can easily reach the end in just a few minutes. It avoids the overwhelming chaos and high difficulty of some shoot ’em ups (like Zenodyne R or Risk System, which have come up earlier in this series), instead opting for a smaller number of enemies that are easier to eliminate one by one. The player’s ship can take several hits before going down, and gets a few extra lives on top of that.

There’s no reason not to hold down the “fire” button (spacebar) to shoot as fast as possible, but the default laser isn’t that fast. Fortunately, destroyed enemies drop powerups that include rapid-fire lasers and more damaging blasters, as well as other standbys like an energy shield or always-useful health pickups. Most powerups only last for a limited time, but they are satisfying to use, tearing through enemy ships that used to take several careful shots to destroy. Also, all the weapons have a cool colored glow as they streak past, illuminating enemy ships and even the 2D backdrop of planets and nebulae.

The final boss is where things get a little more intense, dipping into bullet hell territory with a screen full of projectiles to dodge. I succumbed here once, which meant starting the whole game over from scratch, but it’s so quick that I didn’t mind. On my second go I was able to defeat the boss after a satisfying battle. There are no smaller enemies to blast during the final confrontation, which means no powerups either. It’s a pure test of the player’s ship against the boss, and despite some brief confusion about how to damage it, I found it a fair challenge.

Falling Skies keeps things short and sweet, then, but it offers a fun diversion for those in the mood to blast some spaceships. The bundle version also includes the sprite sheet, in case you want to use some of the ship designs for your own project. This is offered as a .png file as well as a .pdn file, which the internet tells me is for Paint.NET. If you missed it in the bundle, Falling Skies is sold for a minimum price of £1, although the sprite sheet is only included for purchases of £2.50 or more.

That’s 210 down, and only 1531 to go!