Blitter Boy

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Blitter Boy is a 1998 indie top-down shooter created by Chris Chadwick for the Playstation, using the Net Yaroze home development kit. While it was originally expected to only be available to members of the Net Yaroze community, it won 1st place at the Game Developers UK competition, and was included on magazine demo discs across Europe, where it developed a strong cult following.

The game tasks you with entering a mall full of monsters in order to rescue babies which, when collected, follow behind the player in a manner similar to Snake, and must be kept away from enemies.

While the original game presented little in way of explanation for these events, a more recent interview with Chadwick had him provide the game's plot. After a lightning strike hits a multi-story shopping mall, causing all the monsters from the games in the arcade to escape, child mercenary Blitter Boy was sent in to destroy the monsters, and rescue the babies that had been left behind in the crèche during the evacuation.

Tropes used in Blitter Boy include:

• Abnormal Ammo: Bubbles, and falling fruit.
• Bedsheet Ghost: The ghosts, which had escaped the arcade Pac-man machines.
• Bottomless Magazines: Your primary weapon
• Bubble Gun: Surprisingly effective against ghosts and aliens.
• Child Soldiers: The titular Blitter Boy, according to Word of God.
• Christmas Rushed: The game creator considers the game unfinished, presumably due to the need to get it ready for the various game competitions it was entered into.
• Edible Ammunition: Fruit drops.
• Endless Game: Each level introduces more and more enemies, eventually overwhelming the player.
• Escort Mission: The six babies on each stage have to be guided to the exit before continuing.
• Flying Saucer: An enemy type introduced on level 2.
• Friendly Fireproof: Special weapons cause no harm to the babies you're escorting.
• The Game Come to Life: The enemies spawned from the mall's arcade machines.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Food items regenerate health, including the Fruit Drops from your special weapon.
• Life Meter: There are no extra lives in this game, so once the meter runs dry, it's game over.
• Piggy Bank: Grant a nice point-bonus when collected.
• Score Multiplier: collecting coins slowly increases your multiplier.
• Scoring Points: It's an arcade-influenced game, this goes without saying.
• Sprint Meter: Weirdly, sprinting draw from your Life Meter, so use it sparingly!
• We Help the Helpless: The main character is a Mercenary of sorts, sent in to rescue the babies.
• What Could Have Been: According to the game's creator, the final game would have featured more enemies, weapons, as well as specific boss battles.