Developed by Dan Gorlin Productions and originally released for the Atari ST by Brøderbund in 1988, Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child is a simple but brilliant shooter/collect ’em up with analogue controls.

The aim is to shoot ‘flyers’ that are piloted by Sea Sprites, and to then collect the fallen Sprites by moving over them. You control Typhoon Thompson, a well-animated man who rides a small hovercraft, and you’re doing the bidding of the local ‘Spirits’, who’re guiding you on your quest to rescue The Sea Child, a being who will only reveal itself when you’ve collected four mysterious artefacts that are being held by the Sea Sprites.

Typhoon Thompson can be controlled by either a mouse, or a trackball, and I have to say that – having just played the game with one of those cheap thumb-driven wireless trackballs you get off Amazon – playing with a trackball is definitely the best way to play this game.

I remember playing Typhoon Thompson a lot in my youth, and really enjoying it, but I only ever played it with a mouse. And while the mouse controls are still pretty decent, using a trackball does allow a precision that you cannot get with a mouse. Plus, a trackball also allows you to whip the craft around on a dime, and also vary between fast and slow attack speeds, quickly. In fact: using a trackball got me as close as I’ve ever come to completing Typhoon Thompson, although I couldn’t quite beat the last level (because it’s damn tricky).

Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child is an extremely well-designed game with fantastic animation and excellent gameplay. It’s stood the test of time very well and is still more than capable of impressing, and also challenging, any player who wants to remind themselves of what a classic good old game should be. And that is: one that’s great fun to play!

More: Typhoon Thompson on Wikipedia