Shockwave for NES is one of those weird, obscure unlicensed games that somehow slipped through the cracks back in the day. It's a side-scrolling shooter where you pilot this angular little ship through waves of enemies that look like they were designed by someone who'd only vaguely heard of sci-fi.

The controls are stiff—like most NES shooters—but there's something oddly satisfying about blasting through the blocky alien formations. The music loops in that aggressively repetitive way old games do, but after a while, it just becomes part of the background noise while you dodge bullets that definitely weren't designed with fairness in mind.

If you're into retro curiosities, it's a neat little time capsule. Just don't expect anything groundbreaking.