CI Charlies: The Ol' Professionals

CI Charlies is a freeware side-scrolling platform shooter starring an anti-terrorism agent named Jim Nasium. With backup provided by agents Nita Haircut and Ned Smith, Jim battles the terrorist group known as the Red Hand in locations including an airport, underwater submarine, and cliffside encampment. Though there is no overarching storyline, each individual mission has a briefing and some mid-mission dialogue along with the occasional in-engine cutscene. Along with single-player missions, there is a multiplayer versus mode that supports two players on the same computer.

The gameplay is simple and involves shooting enemy terrorists and attack dogs with conventional firearms, while trying to avoid their gunfire by ducking behind cover or jumping. The game features a few different weapons, including a pistol, sub-machine gun, throwing knife, and harpoon gun, but weapons can only be fired horizontally. Scattered around each level are health kits that instantly restore a few bars of health when touched. On some levels there are levers that open and close doors, or raise and lower platforms that can be jumped on to progress through each stage. One level involves stealth, requiring the player to avoid enemies and motion-detecting alarms. On another level which takes place underwater, sharks roam the area while enemy divers attempt to stop the player from boarding a hijacked submarine.