Deep Blue

A side-scrolling shooter with an aquatic theme, developed by Pack-In-Video for the TurboGrafx-16.

Overview

Deep Blue is a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up that puts the player in the cockpit of a ship that resembles an angelfish. The goal of the game is to make one's way past the hordes of fish and other aquatic life to the end of each stage, where a boss awaits.

Deep Blue has a few interesting features, such as the player's health regenerating if they stop shooting and various weapon power-ups that have individual upgraded variants. The player is constantly beset with schools of fish and other marine life, so staying out of the way and regenerating health is often as valid a strategy as swimming through the enemies guns blazing. The ship's health is indicated by the color of its window, which changes from blue to green to yellow to red as the ship incurs damage.

The game's VGM, rather than being upbeat like in many shooters, is instead atmospheric and melancholy.