Uridium

The Good
What Braybrook did had never been done before. Shooting games are either horizontally or vertically scrolling, but even though Uridium seems like another horizontally scrolling shooting game for the first few seconds, you will soon notice that you may turn around on the spot and hunt down the enemies which just passed you by. You turn around once again, and notice that you may raise your speed several times. Uridium is a fast game, but not only that. When you've passed the dreadnought, all the while dodging not only enemies but also obstacles installed on the ship, you are forced to turn around. This is not a horizontally scrolling game, it's a game where you strafe back and forth across a giant ship, destroying it piece by piece, until you are required to land and "destroy the core". Surprisingly, few other games have taken this style, preferring the traditional forced scroll format.

The Bad
The original Uridium is a very difficult game. It's very fast, so fast that you need lightning reflexes in order to avoid the obstacles on the dreadnought. It is very frustrating, to the point where even an experienced shoot'em-up player struggles to complete the first level.

The follow-up on the Amiga, Uridium 2, is a much more approachable game, much thanks to its radar which warns you in proper time of both enemy waves and obstacles.

The Bottom Line
This game must be played, it's a C64 classic and more than that. It is an entirely new "direction" in shooting games.