Firezone

Firezone is one of those late-80s action titles that seems determined to test both your reflexes and your optimism. It drops you into hostile territory and expects you to cope. The overhead perspective gives you a clear view of impending doom, which is helpful in theory and terrifying in practice. Enemies swarm, bullets fly, and survival feels like a minor miracle. Yet there’s an addictive quality to its straightforward design; each attempt teaches you something new. It’s tough, unapologetic, and very much a product of its era, when games believed character-building happened through repeated defeat.