CrissCross

CrissCross is a game where you are stuck in a pacman like maze trying to get five keys to open the door to the next level. The game is full of a variety of enemies, who can also pick up keys. If an enemy picks up a key you have to kill that enemy with your gun (or wait for another enemy to kill them) to cause to key to randomly drop somewhere in the level. The sides of the levels loop around, and one of the main dangers is shooting a passageway and having the bullet come out the other side and hit you in the back. As you progress through the levels, more enemies and mechanics are introduced, but the core concepts of the game never change.

My opinion: This is a great game. I found it very hard, but unlike most of the "hard" games like this I've played it was remarkably free of bullshit. There are no sections that you straight up can't do or that are unfairly balanced. In fact, the only piece of bullshit in the game is the enemy spawning. Since enemies spawn randomly it's possible to have them spawn on top of you. This was a problem while I played, but because it was obviously random and given how many empty spaces are in each maze I can only assume I was profoundly unlucky. I was also surprised by how strategic the game got after I played it a while. Choosing which keys to go after became really important, especially when a few additional mechanics were added on after a few levels. One final thing I'd like to add here is that I got noticeably better the more I played. I know this is sorta a "Well duh!" thing to say but in a lot of games like this you really can't claim that. There's either too much bullshit or not enough depth to allow any kind of real growth. CrissCross is a really good game and I highly suggest checking it out.

CrissCross is by Arthur Gould. You can play it here. Arhtur also very nicely responded to my questions about if there was a downloadable version anywhere by putting this up on his website!