What I love about Jeff Minter‘s Gridrunner Plus Plus is that it combines the simplicity of the arcade hits of old, with modern, trippy visuals. And a good dose of humour.

It’s similar in some ways to Tempest 2000, in that Minter uses text and numbers in his on-screen explosions. He’s also made the game vertical screen, which suits it perfectly, and is also a nod to arcade shooters of the past.

Gridrunner has always been something of a Centipede clone/tribute, and Gridrunner Plus Plus is a continuation of that.

Creatures come down the screen at you. When you shoot them they leave bombs behind. These will either eventually explode, or act as a barrier to the descending creatures, making them descend even quicker.

Control of your ship is via the mouse, which is a stroke of genius IMHO, because it gives you a type of precise movement that you don’t often get in arcade shooters. The game fires for you, so all you have to worry about is the ship movement, and avoiding collisions.

Overall, Gridrunner Plus Plus is a decent game and is well worth a look for shoot ’em up fans. It also comes with a second version of the game, called the “Arse On Fire Special Edition“, which has a wider play area and sweary samples from The Yak himself, and various other infamous places*.

*= Best use of Ivor Buggun in a videogame?!

Final note: I did notice that some level names, and other bits of text in the game, were song titles from Underworld‘s 1999 album “Beaucoup Fish“. Which, I’m guessing, was on Jeff‘s turntable when he wrote this game. 🙂

More: Gridrunner Plus Plus on itch.io
More: Gridrunner Plus Plus on archive.org