Space Shooter

A formation of invaders marches sideways across the top of the screen, dropping a row lower every time it touches an edge. You sit at the bottom with a ship that fires straight up. Clear the formation to advance a wave; let it reach you and the run is over.

The pressure is structural rather than random. The formation moves as one block, so every alien you destroy makes the rest slightly easier to dodge but does nothing to slow their descent. Meanwhile the survivors fire back at a rate that climbs with each wave.

Each wave adds a column and, every third wave, a row — up to eight by five. From wave four the front row takes two hits and is drawn in red. You have three lives, and points scale with the wave number, so surviving deep is worth far more than clearing early waves cleanly.

1. Press Start. Your ship sits at the bottom and fires upward.
2. Destroy every invader to clear the wave. Each is worth 10 points multiplied by the wave number, plus a 100-point bonus for clearing the formation.
3. Invaders fire back at random. A hit costs one of your three lives and clears incoming fire so you are not hit twice instantly.
4. The formation drops a row every time it reaches a screen edge. If any invader reaches your ship’s line, the run ends immediately regardless of lives left.
5. From wave four the front row takes two hits — those invaders are red.

Desktop: move with the ← → arrow keys or A and D. Hold Space to fire — there is a short cooldown between shots, so holding it down is the same as tapping quickly. P pauses. Moving the mouse also steers the ship, and clicking fires.

Mobile and tablet: drag anywhere on the screen to move. The ship fires automatically while your finger is down, so you only have to think about positioning.

Your ship cannot leave the screen edges, and there is no vertical movement — the only decision is where along the bottom to be.

• Clear a column, not a row. Destroying one full column narrows the formation and buys you space at the edges, which is where you want to be when it drops.
• Stay under the gaps. Once part of the formation is gone, position under an empty column — nothing can shoot you from directly above.
• Take the red front row early. Two-hit invaders are at the bottom of the formation and reach you first. Leaving them means facing them at close range.
• Keep moving. Return fire is aimed where you were, not where you are going. Standing still to line up a shot is what costs lives.
• Do not chase the last one. A single remaining invader moves at full formation speed. Wait at the edge it is heading for rather than following it.