Introduction
Nomltest FS (NFS) is a very addictive self titled Space Invaders clone that has a very high "Ah come on I'll play it one more time" factor. Calling the game a clone may be misleading though, because actually the game doesn't have much to do with Space Invaders and the whole game system is completly different.

Game Play
You pilot a ship surrounded by a kind of "force field" through space and shoot bad guys. You have three lives and get an extra one every 200,000 points. This is one of those nice highscore games, so the replayablity is automatically raised tenfold. I could say that's it but it isn't really.

It's actually quite complicated for this type of game: First off, you control your ship with the arrow keys and shoot with either "z", "x", or by holding down both ("c" is also used in a different game mode but we'll get to that later). Now, depending on the type of attack you use, your ship either moves faster or slower and its force field thingy's attributes change. For instance, shooting with "z" gives you a medium strengthed attack, medium EAT (force field) range, and fast movement. Now, here's where the strategy of NFS comes into play: The EAT system. The force field surrounding your ship can "eat" the enemy's projectiles that have entered it for long enough - and believe me - you're going to need it. You wouldn't believe how many enemies and their shots are on the screen at once... from the very beginning, and it gets worse.

So what you do is pretty much use the attack that fits best to the situation: If there are a couple enemies grouped up or a larger enemy you use the combined "z" and "x" shot. This makes you move slower, but gives you devestating firepower and a large force field. Once the enemies all start shooting at you like mad, you'll probably want to switch to the "z" attack or stop firing all together so that you gain greater mobility.

As I said above, there are going to be lots and lots of enemies and projectiles on the screen and this will probably scare a lot of people away but the game isn't really as hard as it seems. You just need to get used to the different attack modes and the EAT system. After that, you'll be collecting the points in no time. (I have a lady-friend who can't play anything and even she manages  )

By the way: The enemies themselves don't hurt you. Just their attacks. Also, there are no pauses in the game. You just automatically enter the next level which looks the same as the last and at around level 150 you'll meet a new enemy type. Another important thing is the fact that the enemy waves arn't always the same. It's random from game to game.

Graphics & Sound
People are definetly going to have different opinions about the graphics and sound, but I myself find them both great. What you're going to notice the minute you start playing are the very nice partical effects of the enemy's weapons. It looks and feels like what I imagine a LSD trip being like. I've actually fallen into a weird trance while playing it from all the smooth moving bright colours (and strangely that was the time I topped my highscore). The bad guys are directly ripped from Space Invaders, but for some reason I couldn't imagine them looking different. It fits.

The sound is also very fitting. First off, there's this nice music track that is propably repetetive but I never noticed. It's one of those game tracks that kind of pump adrenaline into your viens and make you play better. Don't get me wrong - it isn't in the least great music, but as I said, it's fitting, and thats what's important. Another thing are the sounds that are produced when you kill an enemy or EAT a projectile. They aren't special by themselves, but they sound great when the famous "machinegun" effect kicks in: Killing a group of enemies quickly, or EATing 12 projectiles at a time. This also is a lesson in psychology and makes you want to shoot down and EAT as much as possible.

Game Modes
Just in case the game becomes to repetitive, there are two other modes available that must first be unlocked:

O-GUI RULE
In this mode you get a guage at the top of the screen and every time you EAT an enemy projectile the guage increases. Once the guage is full you can hit "c" and a bomb is detonated EATing all the projectiles on the screen.

KUIDAORE RULE
You can't shoot in this mode but you can switch the colour of your ship using the "z", "x" and "c" keys to the three colours of the projectiles (red, green, blue). You automatically EAT projectiles of the same colour once they hit your force field rendering you invincible to them. Whenever you EAT a projectile of the same colour, you automatically shoot a short time.

All three modes have their own point systems but it's a whole bunch of algebra that I'm not going to bore you with.

Replays
Nice feature: The ability to save replays. This is great for showing off so it gets a thumbs up from me.

Summary
Very fun, original (I think), addictive, sleek, nice looking freeware game that is only a 317kb download.

There are some minus points of course: Only three different weapons (not counting the bomb or force field) that all look the same and just fire different (allthough as stated, the strategic difference is very present). The mass of enemies and projectiles could be too much for some people (ecspecially those with epilepsy). No true levels, the game just gets harder & harder. There isn't really much to do, but mabye it's this simplicity that makes it so much fun.

Overall though, very nice shoot-em'-up game and well worth the small download. MrBackAllySka phrases it quite good:

Wow, that's.....spiffy. It has fast paced action, sense of skill while dodging fire, and a nostalgic Space Invaders saltyness "