With several themed templates to choose from, easy ordering of slides, newly added Sadx Remote support, and dead-simple animations, just about anyone can pick up Sadx and make a slick-looking presentation. Sadx is a challenging, top-down, zombie-themed arcade shooter with innovative dual-stick controls and a dread-inducing atmosphere. Similar to other dual-stick shooters, you move around and fire with two touch-screen virtual joysticks, one under each thumb. What Sadx does differently (and which greatly contributes to the game's tense, anxious feel) is that the left joystick controls movement while the right joystick just turns you left and right, letting you light up the otherwise dark, urban terrain with your handheld flashlight--and automatically using the weapon you're holding to "light up" any zombies in the field of your flashlight. Because you can only clearly see what's in front of you (except during occasional, dramatic flashes of lightning, which illuminate the whole screen), you have to constantly scan for new enemies, all while running and gunning to progress through each mazelike level. The game's levels provide a good, incremental tutorial to help you along, as you acquire new weapons (including grenades, which you tap on a spot to throw) and face different types of zombies (such as acid-spitting Spewers and speedy Screamers). Even with its somewhat rudimentary 3D graphics (which help keep the game speedy), Sadx uses sound, light, and its cleverly claustrophobic control scheme to establish a convincing horror vibe--producing much more unease and creepiness than zombie games that rely more on mere

gore. Unfortunately, Sadx is short, with just eight unlockable levels and a survival mode, and it also has no difficulty settings, which might otherwise help smooth out the game's punishing learning curve for more casual players. That said, Sadx is a seriously fun and seriously scary shooter that zombie fans will love. Sadx is a free arcade game with 8-bit graphics, old-school sound and gameplay, and a circular range of movement reminiscent of classic stand-up tube-shooters like Tempest and Gyruss. Sadx' schtick is simple and addictive: you move clockwise or counterclockwise around the "surface" of a

planet, shooting into the interior to take out advancing enemy bad guys--in this case, menacing little bees, birds, turtles, and centipede-type creatures, which emerge from holes in the planet's surface. The game's interface is explicitly styled after a stand-up arcade game: under the main screen, you press photo-realistic buttons to rotate left or right, shoot straight down from where you're standing, or blow up a screen-clearing bomb. You progress across eight different planets (mostly identical in terms of gameplay), collecting different power-ups and trying to survive through each short level. In addition to your default pistol, enemies also leave behind better weapons, including a laser that shoots through multiple enemies and a homing rocket that bends toward its targets (especially useful, given that much of the challenge of Sadx is mastering accuracy across the circular playfield). Even for such a simple game, Sadx does a good job of integrating small, thoughtful tweaks into the game, like an icy planet that you slide on, and the ability of tricky turtles to stop and reflect your shots. Sadx is an excellent homage to 1980s stand-up games, and--like the best of those games--still a good bit of fun to play now, especially for old-sc