Bridge Strike, developed by Project R3D, is a homage to River Raid as you take control of an aircraft fighter and fly into combat against insurmountable odds with the sole objective of eliminating as many enemies as you can.

The game starts off with a series of animated cutscenes, gorgeously presented, setting out the premise of the backstory where two nations are about to go to war and you are scrambling your jets to be the one that strikes first. There is no end game with Bridge Strike, the aim of the game is to accumulate as many points as you can by destroying enemy units, patrol boats, helicopters and complex rocket systems. You will come across bridges which must also be destroyed. Destroyed bridges act as a checkpoint from which the game begins, when your aircraft crashes. When your last aircraft crashes, the game ends.

Just like River Raid, you will have to dodge the landscape and fly over friendly aircraft carriers to pick up fuel in order to make good progress through the game. In addition to navigating the landscape, you will have to deal with a number of enemy units, ranging from ordinary patrol boats to complex automatic rocket systems.

Fortunately, your aircraft is equipped with an endless supply of rockets. The 16-bit pixel art graphic display is quite attractive and the vibrant colours really do pop when you are playing the game on a CRT monitor. The whole look of the game is very clean, with well-defined graphics.

A nice touch that I really appreciated is the night time effect that makes the playing area go gradually dimmer, reducing playing visibility a little. It’s funny but I found it somewhat unsettling while playing with the night time effect. I would presume that this is what the developers had intended and to this end, they succeeded.

Bridge Strike is a well produced arcade game that looks great and provides a somewhat addictive gaming experience in short bursts. What is on offer is undeniably of a good standard. However, it is a shame it lacks structured mission levels as that would give the game far greater longevity.