Brisk, stylish and compulsive, Swordship is everything an arcade game should be. And it's an Essential. Our review:
Beyond the fonts, Swordship is still rather excellent. This is pure arcade brilliance, actually, a fast-paced avoid-'em-up with a maritime larceny twist. Your Swordship is a dinky yellow mischief-maker, a needle-thin arrowhead of a craft that can open its tiny jaws to grab containers lost to the ocean, and then pinch them. It can't shoot, not really anyway, but it can trick nearby enemies into killing each other.
What these enemies share are red marks that show the areas that they're going to attack, and a pause before attacking which allows you to get into the red mark, make sure it's where you want it to be, and then get out again. So the overhead bomb droppers - move close to a turret you want to be rid of, wait for the red marks, and then leg it.
Mix the enemies up with the crates and you have a dodging game of truly glorious elegance and intrigue. I never tire of getting baddies to blast their own side. I never tire of the last minute container drop which allows me to rack up points and get out of the way again just before I'm killed. I never tire of the perfect dive - you can duck under the waves for a limited amount of time - that extinguishes a fire and gets me out of the way of a bomb.