After 10 months of teasing the the run 'n gun platformer and its spartan but stylized graphics, indie game designer Sparky has released Star Guard, a nine-level Flash game that you can download for free to your PC or Mac.

In Star Guard, you guide a laser pistol-armed spaceman as he jumps from exploding platforms and shoots his way through nine levels of monsters to get to an evil wizard. You'll also pass by other spacemen fighting the monsters, but it's best not to get too attached to them...

Though the game gives you infinite lives and a lot of checkpoints, I very much suggest you use a gamepad instead of a keyboard for this. I was able to finish the game with just the keyboard, but I probably wouldn't have spent over half an hour battling the end boss if I used a controller.

Even if the visuals look too simple for your tastes, you should definitely play it if you like run 'n gun games -- it's very fun and polished (other than a few issues with the final boss fight). Check out this crazy speedrun of Star Guard's first six stages from Indiegames.com's Tim:

[Via Indiegames.com]