Allow me to enlighten you on the gift that is Torus Trooper. This is a game coded using the D programming language by a Japanese guy named Kenta Cho. He makes lots of games for different platforms, but Torus Trooper is my favorite by far. Best of all, the games are all free, relatively simple, and small in filesize.

Torus Trooper is a scrolling shooter with a simple 3D model (you) soaring down a tunnel with a mass of enemies trying to kill you. However, what seperates this from other scrollers is that the map is a spherical cylinder, where you can rotate all the way around when its complete. The map changes from time to time to add variety, and it adds to the fun. The speeds you go at well exceed 2000km/h and unlike many extreme speed games, its totally believable. When I played my first game, the first thing to come out of my mouth was “Holy shit!” The adrenaline rush you get with the game on fullscreen and the music ringing in your ears is something I’ve personally never really felt before. When you play,your heart actually races! I’m still shaking from my last game. I happened to be running the music on my headset and not on my speakers, so everything felt really closeby and probably helped to absorb me into the whole atmosphere of winding through this tunnel at insane speeds. The atmosphere is somewhat reminiscent of REZ, a musical PS2 shooter that came out a year or two ago.

For a game that’s freeware and will take less than 4 minutes to download for most broadband users, I find this game really impressive. I have to recommend it to anyone to at least try in their spare time. It’s a great way to just get away from reality for 10-15 minutes, just enough to relieve stress but not disrupt your schedule.

Kenta, also known as ABAsoft, has many other games that are very fun. I also can recommend TUMIKI Fighters, a sidescroller with sticky explosions, and Gunroar, a chaotic scroller. Some of the other games kind of bored me, but you might find them more entertaining, so try them out.

ABAsoft Games