Chris Butler‘s Z is a slick, eight-way-scrolling, overhead shoot ’em up published by Rino Software in 1985. Not to be confused with the 1996 game of the same name, by The Bitmap Brothers.

The aim of the game is simple: fly around the scrolling landscape; shoot the enemies; locate, shoot, and pick up the green bombs found occasionally floating around; shoot the collected bombs at the alien base. When you hit the base enough times you can enter the portal to the next level. Every fourth level you also get an alien mothership to destroy. It’s impervious to your guns, but susceptible to your bombs.

Z is reminiscent – I think – of both Sinistar, and Time Pilot (two classic arcade games from the early 1980s that featured eight-way blasting action), although it really isn’t as good as either.

Although the gameplay in Z isn’t anything special – and it does get repetitive quickly – Z did stand out from the crowd in 1985, mainly because the presentation is top notch. The scrolling levels look great, and the ship handles nicely too. And for those reasons Z remains a reasonably interesting game to play now.

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