The word ‘remake’ is tossed around a lot, in movies as well as in games. Frequently a freeware game will be a remake of an earlier one, or an update, as we’ve seen with the Mario/Pac-Man games which featured modern or swapped characters from other games. Other times, a freeware remake will bring back from obscurity a forgotten game which just happened to slip by. In 1981 a game was released called Crossfire – this is a remake of that game.

In strange, but somewhat familiar surrounds, you are a shape of some sort who starts life amongst several aligned boxes. Around the boxes are other UFO-looking shapes which you blast by pressing space and a direction. Each takes four shots to kill completely and will return to its starting position and change form when it’s hit. With enemies starting on nearly every side of you and at different times, this ensures a healthy dose of consistent action.

While the game does lack somewhat in the graphics department, its blocky homage to days gone by is a welcome one, especially following on from the recent spate of graphically intense games reviewed here. Take a trip down memory lane, or visit for the first time a game you’d never have seen before, with Gridfirefire. Delightfully simple, deceptively complex.