Play Auts – The Ultimate Stress Relief Game Online

AUTS, also known as The Ultimate Stress Relief Game, is a side-scrolling flight shooter released for MS-DOS in 1995. The title is a Finnish word meaning "ouch." It is a multiplayer-focused game designed for two to four players, presented on a split screen. The game operates within the cave flier genre, a style of game that gained particular popularity in Finland during the 1990s.

Players control V-shaped spaceships and engage in combat against each other. The primary objective is to destroy opposing ships using a standard bullet weapon and a secondary, more powerful gun. This secondary weapon can be selected from an arsenal of approximately two dozen different options. To manage their ship, players can land on pads scattered throughout the level to recharge energy and switch their equipped secondary weapon. The game's environments are constructed from bitmap images where a specific key color defines the navigable space for the ships. The levels also include areas designated as water, though these are static graphical elements rather than flowing terrain.

Progression in AUTS is centered around competitive matches within these pre-designed levels. A notable feature for its time was the inclusion of a level editor, which allowed players to construct new arenas. This tool converted custom bitmap images into a format that the game could interpret and use as a playable stage, extending the game's content beyond its original offerings.