Piranha Download (1996 Arcade action Game)

Piranha is your run-of-the-mill Asteroids clone, but features a vast range of weapons and enemies across 100 levels of gameplay. With improved graphics and (well, some of it) music by Eric Streidell (Zodiak / Cascada) and Prism / EMF, this is one of the more recent additions to the huge list of Asteroids clone.

Piranha from now-defunct Finnish developer D-Designs is an excellent Asteroids clone. Tomer Gabel's review at MobyGames says it all about this very obscure game:

"...[This] game really is great - excellent graphics, good (configurable! there's a concept) controls, cute levels, an insanely vast array of monsters, weapon and speed upgrades, all sorts of bonus - what more can a person ask for? Also, the music is initially excellent. The menu and music for the first 10 levels are done with great talent by Prism / EMF, and the next 10 levels are accompanied by a great piece of digital music by Zodiak.

The Bad:

Unfortunately, the music becomes really horrible after level 20 and turns into a techno-trance sort of horrendous noise. Too bad, especially considering the first few pieces. The game is TOO LONG and gets repetitive after a while; they should've cut it in half. I mean it. Also, an undeniably stupid bug occasionally causes the game to enter an endless attack sequence in stage 53ish, which is honestly amazingly annoying. And it's too damn easy!

The Bottom Line:

A really good Asteroides clones, whose polished gameplay is only marred by really bad music starting in the 20th level."

Although the game may be too easy for joystick experts, the sheer length of the game will keep you glued for hours on end - there are 100 levels, which get increasingly more complex and varied and only a little bit repetitive. To add to the bonus, Piranha also offers a multiplayer mode where you can go head-to-head with up to 2 other players, or play with them in co-operative play. Whether or not you have played Asteroids, Piranha is hard to beat for sheer arcade-style, no-frills shooter fun.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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