Most of the games I stumble across end up as Distraction links, but this game I think deserves a little more credit and a short review why. The game is called NaaC and follows in the classic model of Robotron and Smash TV. It’s simple to play, fun to play, and one that doesn’t require a lot of thought to get on the fun quickly.

NaaC is not going to win any graphics awards or any creativity awards. But they deserve some honorable mention for quick fun. The point of NaaC is to just shoot everything that moves. Simple. Nothing to new here either, shoot the aliens. You get a good selection of guns, all of them familiar to any gamer or anyone that has seen Aliens.

You control the player with the keyboard arrows and control your aiming/shooting with the mouse. This lets you move in one direction while shooting in another. You start with a simple gun, but gun power-ups will appear (in the corners) and all you need to do is grab them to get a reload of ammo or a new gun all together. And you get your standard bonus power-ups like health, shield, speed, and a little bit guy that shoots for you.

To get started you don’t need to think, which is the best part. But after you die you realize the strategy lies in your gun/ammo management. Your motivation, besides just having fun shooting everything, is good old score. Conveniently enough, NaaC has online leadboard…but unless you’re ranging from 12 - 50 million points, you won’t even break the top 50 - so just keep on truckin’ I guess.

The game has two modes, Arena and Survival. I haven’t unlocked Survival yet so I can’t discuss that, but Arena is where you start. Just you, your guns, and aliens in a room.

NaaC follows the simple rules to fun games, which I touched on a bit for the last gem of game I reviewed, Torus Trooper.

1. Simple to play; Just arrow keys and click
2. It looks good; Not award-winning, but gets the point across nicely
3. It sounds good; Sound effects do the job both thematically and as response triggers
4. You die fast; Not that you die fast, but when you do it’s done and over. Not dancing or end movies, just get moving so you can start playing again
5. High score; Along with a point score you get a kill number too, which is always good for comparing yourself to others.

The only real downside to the game is you only have one life to live. It would have been nice to have two or three lives to play with, especially when learning. Or at least give the option of extra lives in mid-play. Getting a few levels in with full guns and then dying really bites it…but in the same vein, it makes you mad enough that you’ll start over again.

So if you’re looking for something new that is familiar, give NaaC a download.