Powder

Powder is a video game in the action genre developed by Five Stars VG Studio and published by Verkosoft Publishing originally released in 1998. It is currently playable on Amiga.

Powder is a side-scrolling 'shmup' for the Amiga, done in a slightly cartoony style much like many SNES and PC Engine shooters. The system is fairly simple; instead of a long array of power-ups, you have a reconfigurable ship, with five modes, which can be toggled by pressing the spacebar or the second button on the joystick. The first mode has a scatter fire that fires forward at three angles, the second mode is a sort of gatling beam cannon, firing a long burst from three rotating tubes. The third mode has a battery of rocket launchers that fire in the direction you are moving. This means you can dive-bomb enemies or intercept them from below. However, the missiles have a very short range.

Powder has a graphical style reminiscent of the old Irem games (not R-Type, mind you), or the Hudson games. Although it is made for the OCS chipset, which was 13 years old when Powder was released, it features many little graphical touches, such as reflections on windows and highly detailed landscapes. Each stage features several sub-bosses that slow down the otherwise forced scrolling. Although the game mostly scrolls horizontally, the playing field is at least a screen and a half high, allowing for great maneuverability, and with certain parts of the game also scrolling diagonally.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.