Martian Alert is one of those Game Boy Color shooters that somehow nails that perfect balance between "simple to pick up" and "hard to put down." You're dumped straight into a tiny pixel spaceship with aliens swarming in from all sides—no tutorial, no hand-holding, just lasers and panic. The first few waves lull you into thinking it's easy... then suddenly the screen's full of neon-green Martian saucers zigzagging like they've had too much space coffee.

What I love is how the power-ups change your strategy on the fly. Grabbing that spread shot turns you into a flying death blender, but good luck dodging when you're twice as wide. And the chiptune soundtrack? Pure late-90s arcade energy—you'll catch yourself humming it after a session. Just don't blame me when you realize you've been hunched over your GBC for an hour trying to beat your high score.

It's not the deepest shooter out there, but sometimes you just want to vaporize aliens with zero complications. Martian Alert gets that.