Of all the genres I find intimidating, scrolling shooters are the worst. The genre didn't earn the nickname “Bullet Hell” lightly. Modern incarnations are so intimidating to me that I get scared off by their screenshots–walls of multicolored lasers and enemies choking every pixel on the screen. Back in the day I cut my teeth on Gradius, but somewhere along the way, the genre lost me.

The history of the shoot 'em up genre is a storied one–it's a long and gradual path from Space Invaders to Geometry Wars. Genetos tries to map that history inside the game itself. A standard vertical scrolling shooter, your ship moves about at the bottom of the screen, and enemies come at you from the top of the screen. The twist on the familiar formula here is that you start out with a “1st generation” ship. The generations refer to the iteration of the shoot 'em up genre and associated platform. Therefore your first ship is similar to the ship from Space Invaders and it behaves just like it. You start in the “1st generation” level, which is again a variation on Space Invaders.

As you kill enemies, though, you collect pellets which fill up your upgrade bar at the bottom of the screen. Once the upgrade bar gets full, your ship is upgraded to the next generation, which is a Gradius-like ship. Your ship goes through several phases and eventually you'll work your way up to the modern shoot 'em up.

The levels follow a similar progression. You fight enemies scrolling down the screen toward you, and you face the occasional boss. Once you've completed the level though, you move on to the next generation's level. So you go from a Space Invaders-like level to a Gradius one, then to something that would look at home on the SNES. The gameplay evolves too; you start with only a gun, then gain bombs, then bullet time and several other weapons. It keeps the shoot 'em up interesting all the way through.

If you're not used to the genre though, I'd start out on the lowest difficulty setting. This isn't a game that treats you with kid gloves.

Why You Should Check This Out: Genetos is a history of the shoot 'em up genre, in game form. You move from a primitive Atari-level Space Invaders-like ship and enemies into more modern incarnations as you complete more of the game. Your ship, the level, the enemies and even the gameplay morph along with the history of the shoot 'em up genre. It's a trip down memory lane–and a fun, challenging shoot 'em up