Black Widow/Gameplay

Controls

 * Left Joystick: Use your left 8-way joystick to direct the Black Widow around her web; if she is not firing, she faces the direction that she last fired in.
 * Right Joystick: Use your right 8-way joystick to make the Black Widow fire shots at the enemy insects; they are not effective against some of them.
 * 1 or 2 Player Buttons: Push these buttons to begin a 1 or 2 player game.

Black Widow
This spider is the protagonist of the game; despite her name, she is red in colour (although for the attract sequence, she is depicted as green). She must defend her web against the various enemy insects, some of which will leave "grubsteaks" (dollar signs) behind when killed which can be collected for extra points - and the "grubsteaks" are initially white with the point value of 500, but will change colour (and decrease in value) to cyan and 250 points, green and 100 points, and blue and 50 points, before disappearing. The Black Widow must also watch out for the eggs that the Hornets lay on her web, and push them off the edges of it (or through its central hole) for the increasing point values of 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 points before they hatch out into more Hornets (or even Spoilers, which are invulnerable to the Black Widow's shots and can only be killed by a Grenade Bug, a Rocket Bug, or the Bug Slayer). The Black Widow will lose one life whenever she gets hit by any enemy insect; however, she will receive an extra life every 20000 points by default (but she cannot have more than seven at one time).

Other insects
There are eight other types of insects in the game; Mosquitos shall leave "grubsteaks" behind when killed, while Beetles shall eat them (but still leave them behind when killed). Hornets, however, will lay eggs on "grubsteaks", which must be pushed off the web before they hatch into more Hornets (or even Spoilers, which are invulnerable to the Black Widow's shots) - and Grenade Bugs will explode when hit, killing all other enemy insects and eggs in their blast radius for 500 points apiece, but the Black Widow can also herself be a victim of this. Every fourth wave, a formation of Thunderbugs will fly towards the Black Widow; if one gets hit by her shots it will break away from the formation and fly directly towards her. If the same one gets hit for a second time, it shall explode - and if you manage to kill all of them, you will receive a 5000-point bonus. Rocket Bugs are invulnerable and will launch miniaturized versions of themselves at the Black Widow from any other insects they tag (which are worth 100 points apiece); finally, the Bug Slayer is invulnerable (but harmless to the Black Widow) and competes with her for "grubsteaks", but it is also capable of killing all the other dangerous insects.