Kids have it easy these days. Games have become way to namby-pamby. I once heard a developer state that he didn't want anyone to die in the first level because it was the tutorial and we should take it easy on those playing it. What? There's an easy setting if you want to do that surely. In my day I played games that took 10 minutes to load and if you touched anything you died and had to start over from the very start – none of this pansy arsed checkpoint malarkey. Developers are spending way too much time on pampering their players with awards and stars and saying things like “there there, we're only going to put you back 5 seconds for failing to shoot that poorly, trained inept guard – don't you worry you little puddums you” that by the time gamers of today get to 40 all games will come with their own gamer who plays the game for you all-the-while reminding them that they're beautiful, strong, intellectual people that can get laid if they put their mind to it.

The vision of the gaming future is wet – and not in a good way.

Still there are those few that continue to fight the good fight. Those that remember how games were meant to be played and aren't afraid to put their money where their mouth is. Unfortunately, half the time these developers are self-funded geeks in the bottom of some basement somewhere – unloved and under-appreciated.

Yes of course, I talk about the Indie Developer.

Not all of them are still fighting the Cold War like the dude behind Braid but certainly most of them have felt the impact of an accountant ruled world and it's only very recently that they've been allowed to shine through the medium of digital downloads as I've no doubt said on numerous occasions.

Konstantin Koshutin are the guys behind Hammerfight and I'm glad a copy made it over all the way from Russia because it's a bloody good little title.

You play a guy who's people have been wiped off the face of the Earth in some conspiracy you try to unravel as you go through the game. You're armed with a ship (one that looks like a little wooden sphere for want of a better description – hell look at the screenshots) that, through the cunning use of your mouse, can spin a variety of weaponry at other guys in ships. You'll get the chance to wield things like swords, axes and boulders on chains – as well as upgrade your ship to utilise shields and projectile weaponry (guns!).

The aim of the game is simple enough – you face multiple scenarios which require you to abuse your aggressors with a barrage of swinging blows from your assigned weapon. While the storyline will provide some interesting scenarios, a lot of what's on offer is arena-like situations facing perhaps one or more opponents. Each time you complete a level you'll usually get the chance to head to the armoury and spend your hard earned cash on unlocking additional weapons or purchasing inventory from the shop there.

Hammerfight's storyline is what caused me to harp on about games the way they were in the first place as it's about as random as you'd expect from some of the older titles – which certainly floats my proverbial boat. They throw a few curve balls and story twists in for good measure, although I have to say by the end of the game I wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. Not that this was a problem as the game is certainly repeatable with certain sections of the game presenting you with choices that mean you'll have to complete different levels than you did before, but additionally you could try out weapon combinations you didn't last time – seeing as Hammerfight lets you swing more than one weapon around, or combine items should you wish.

At times the game can be a little clunky as with most games using physics as a feature. On occasion your ship might get stuck under a bunch of gits trying to throttle you with their flails and I also found that as the checkpoints fade from black that sometimes the threat can already be on you with a mean left-hook before you've had a chance to move out of the way. Hey, it was nothing that made me want to eat the keyboard and punch a series of testosterone fuled holes in my monitor – so I'm happy about that.

The challenge can be a bit variable at times too, mostly depending on which route you pick through the game, but again I wouldn't say it was a frustrating challenge, after all I was crafting in Aion and hitting fools on the head with a large chained boulder in Hammerfight – that's what we like to call multitasking here at Ultra Ninjas.

Sigh, I'd still love to know what the other ending was though...you can find that one out for yourselves I think!