(oneliner:: Shoot enemy aircraft over a river while keeping your fuel toped off.)
Developer:: Carol Shaw Publisher:: Activision Release Date:: 1982-01-01 Hours:: 0.1
River Raid is in many ways the blueprint for games like Xevious, Axelay, and Raiden as one of the first shooting games where you fly over a scrolling landscape. Far from obsolete, though, the game’s use of fuel management and static friction were abandoned almost completely in the genre after this. This keeps River Raid unique, and its responsive controls and clear objective keep it interesting to play. It might by my favorite 2600 title.
Skip River Raid 2; it’s a different game and Carol Shaw was not involved.