Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom

This game, despite its cheesy name, is one of the cutest shoot-'em-up style games ever made for the PC. There's not much to tell about the game, simply because it's very straightforward. You take the role of a lone starship pilot, who happens to encounter the "Dreaded Space Bats of Doom" on a routine assignment in outer space, and are all that stands between them and the invasion of Earth.

The game consists of 66 stages, arranged in some sort of pattern (for example, every type of bats you encounter takes 3 stages to pass, each of three introducing new challenges). Once every several bats you kill you get one of four bonuses - purple gems, 6 of which grant you another life, a green gem which makes your missiles faster, a red one which gives you additional missiles per round, or a white gem which grants you a time-limited "hyper" mode.

The game is very addictive and challenging, and the cliche' name/plot makes it a refreshing change from all the typical Space Invaders clones...