How did I miss this one? Last week those sly dogs over at Gearbox Studios released a browser-based, “old-school” 16-bit version of Borderlands.

It’s got a top-down view where your character (your choice of Borderlands 2 characters Axton, Maya, Salvador or Zer0) has to survive wave after wave of oncoming Skags and Bandits.

Weapons will occasionally drop which are automatically picked up when walked over, and as usual, leveling up heals you. The controls are simple, using the arrow keys to navigate and the space bar to shoot, but the difficulty is surprisingly high. I can’t seem to get much further than the third level. Still, it’s a great time waster and a fun way to promote next month’s release of Borderlands 2.

Borderlands 2 will release on September 18th for PC, XBox 360 and Playstation 3.