DUO is a game I stumbled across while looking for something else. It's rather fitting, really, since that's exactly how I used to find some of the great shooters of arcade days gone by. En route to the Double Dragon machine or looking for Mat Mania, I'd see a Raiden cabinet out of the corner of my eye - or perhaps a marquee that simply said, "New Game." Not nearly long enough after that, the money I had saved for the other game would be gone.

The thrill of dodging wave after wave of enemies, making it by the skin of your teeth, and going for that perfect stage is back - with a twist. You can save your quarters for . . . gumballs, or whatever it is quarters buy nowadays, because DUO can be had for free. All you need is a PC and the determination to keep at it after this game slaps you down a few times.

Survival of the roundest

DUO proves several things at once: (a) it doesn't have to be a polygon-driven 3D festival of color and shadow to keep you entertained and coming back; (b) just because a program isn't heavily marketed doesn't mean it's not worthy of attention; and (c) Internet stuff should be as free as possible. Since The Next Level is partially built on these three principles, it's no surprise that I'm a big fan of this game.

The goal is as simple as goals get. You control a tiny little ship that starts out with an almost useless peashooter. The craft is free to move along the x-axis and fire rapid shots up and down the y-axis - usually. Just like in Asteroids, enemies come at the ship from all over the screen and split into smaller units when shot, until you get down to a certain size. The enemies are all hollow circles - no mother ships here - with a rudimentary AI but mathematically complex movement patterns. All you have to do is make it through 100 stages of these buggers.

The beauty lies in the gradually building ferocity and the constantly changing restrictions put on your ship. Finishing off a tiny circle can release one of two types of power-up. The weapons upgrades come quickly but can be lost at alarming speed if you're not careful. There are twenty-five different weapons in all, and just like the enemies, they are color-coded according to their overall effectiveness. The energy power-up just patches up your life meter, even when it's seems like you'll never need to heal.

Yep, everything seems just great when you're mowing down a horde of lazy circles with your big bad purple cannon. Enjoy the moment. Soon enough you will be contending with some combination of temporarily indestructible enemies, large swarms, crazy patterns, acid drops, and an oscillating playing field. Get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and your mighty purple cannon will turn into a limp blue ray before you can scream, "Noooo!" Some stages can get absolutely vicious, especially when too many big enemies are shot too close together.

The more things change, the more they get insane

Challenge mode, the main part of the game, can be started on any one of four difficulty levels, but even if you start on Training, reaching certain stages will trigger an advance to the next difficulty level. That means if you're planning to finish all 100 stages, you will have to get pretty damn good. Save points come after every five stages, to keep you from becoming homicidal.

The rules of engagement change from one stage to the next. Most of the time, your ship moves along a horizontal line in the middle of the screen, one cannon shooting up, one down. Many times, though, the ship will be restricted to movement along the very top or bottom of the playing field, with only a single cannon functioning. Still other times, vertical movement - either voluntary or controlled - is enabled. One stage is wide open, the next takes place in a narrow corridor. Now you're free to rotate 180 degrees, now you're not.

The shooting/movement variables couple with the just-right difficulty curve to keep it all interesting. After each stage, your performance is rated and bonus points awarded. The game stores your best scores, adding a replay incentive for those whose toughest challenges come from within. Two other modes, Time Attack and Survivor, also extend the replay value and bring this free game head and shoulders above many big-name releases. The Survivor levels are even randomly generated, so you'll never experience it the same way twice.

While you're juggling speedy kills, evasive maneuvers, power-ups (pick up five in a row and you get a temporary shield), and shot conservation, you might want to listen to some speed metal or hip-hop instead of the default tunes. (The included music is very good, but this game was made for Judas Priest's "Ram It Down.") If so, just pop some MP3s into the game's music folder and toggle an option in the main menu and you're in business. Anytime a song ends or the game is paused or restarted, a new song plays at random. Because of that, some songs might play too frequently and others not enough, which can be a bit frustrating if you've been waiting for a certain song.

Like the music and sound effects, the graphics can be tweaked from the title menu. If you want as few distractions as possible, turn the background noise down. Just don't be surprised when that does nothing for your score - this is a tough game with extra flash or without. You also have control options, though mouse control is definitely the way to go.

Roll with the dynamic DUO

So how do you get your own copy of this freeware overachiever? Choose a link below. Even if you aren't terribly good at this type of game, you'll have a lot of fun.

Download the Zip version of DUO (5.11MB, DirectX 9 required)

Download the RAR version of DUO (4.01MB, DirectX 9 required)

· · · Nick Vlamakis