Bitfighter — Free 2D Space Shooter

Bitfighter is a 2D multi-player space-shooter on its way to completion. It takes on an asteroids-like feel with game-play similar to Spacewar! while featuring modern graphics and compatibility.

Bitfighter is instantly fun. There's no big learning curve or complex controls to figure out, and there's not too many weapons and abilities to learn. You move your triangle-spaceship around 2D maps and shoot other players. Gameplay is fast and maps are generally small. It runs fast and is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.

I was most impressed with the smoothness of the game and controls. A game with lag and errors can cease to be enjoyable, but Bitfighter ran perfectly for me, with no crashes or glitches. I'd like to see the big game companies achieve something like this, not that they ever do.

There are a bunch of game-types, with more coming. There are special team-based matches such as capture the flag, zone capture and core defense. There are Free-For-All games like nexus, where you battle for flags against all opponents and rabbit, in which players fight to control a flag. There are even game-types with more than 2 teams, such as retrieve. There's even a soccer game-type, where players attempt to move a huge ball into the opponents goal while killing each other.

Players can choose what weapons and modules to equip on their ship.There are 5 types of weapons, including a mine-layer, a bouncing, exploding ball of energy, and a triple shot. Two Modules can be equipped, which can speed up your ship, protect it, make it invisible, or allow you to build and repair objects in your environment. All of these use up energy, which prevents players from being permanently invisible or shielded.

Since the game is still growing, there aren't many players involved yet. This means that you can take part in the process, by helping create the game or just by adding to the amount of people who play. The game already has  an easy-to-use map editor. Any player can create their own map without too much difficulty to add to the game's currently short supply.