Operation Fungus

Old school shooters were very punishing and even unfair in certain cases, which is why modern gamers would probably not be able to make it very far in them. No autosave function meant that each death was a disaster, and in some cases you only had a very limited number of lives to work with. Shoot ‘em ups were even more difficult to deal with, especially those that filled the screen with enemies and forced you to survive.

Operation Fungus is a retro shoot ‘em up in which you have a single purpose: destroy everything in your path and survive for as long as it takes. The game is not very deep when it comes to gameplay or the story, but it is very frustrating and challenging. Even the first level is a real bother to deal with, especially if you are new to the genre and you cannot handle too many enemies at once.

The story puts you in the role of a guy by the name of Lardy O’Pumpkin, a guy who must single-handedly destroy an entire horde of space mushrooms. Although they have done nothing wrong yet, it is the general consensus that they are about to doom Earth, which is why your mission is so important. Naturally, the plot has no effect whatsoever on the actual gameplay.

Your ship has a few interesting abilities, such as to shoot bullets multiple ways. Whether you choose the classic approach and use one targeted bullet, or go for the shotgun-like spray of projectiles, each choice has its merits. Moreover, you can even upgrade things like ship health, bullet speed and reload time, which makes it a bit easier to deal with the huge number of enemies.

Since your goal is to collect power until the gauge is full, you might wonder what happens when that is achieved. Well, a boss fight starts immediately, and it’s about as difficult as you might imagine from the rest of the gameplay. Thankfully, you’ll be pretty well upgraded by the time you have your first boss fight, so you should at least be able to dodge its attacks properly.

All things considered, Operation Fungus is actually very well polished and refined, despite the fact that it looks old and grumpy. However, you need to be prepared to deal with some major league frustration, especially if you are not used to old school shoot ‘em ups.