It's a simple enough: you're in a hovering ship moving around an arena in any direction and able to face and fire either forwards or backwards. You have a choice between a wide arc of fire, or a single focused, powerful stream and each can be powered up individually, with a helpful little indicator in one corner of the screen to show the relative strengths of the two.

Now, all this sounds pretty standard shoot-'em-up territory so far, but it's so much more. Aside from being ridiculously pretty, Space Tripper is as full as adrenaline as any; There are enemies everywhere, close calls, tight squeezes and so on; tough bosses that need be taken down bit by bit, a refreshing change from the norm in today's games where everything is at full power until it dies. These bosses give you visual feedback on how far into killing them you are.

All of this combines to make one of the most well-crafted shooters I have ever played.

This, friends, is a definite return to those wonderful days when the high-score was king and games were played as far through as you were good enough to get, not until their inevitable conclusion and roll of credits. You are not going to beat Space Tripper on its hardest difficulty for a long time, but you will want to so much it hurts and when you do, panting and sweating and shaking from the effort, you'll know that it was all worth it.