Space Alien Invaders
More games to play
Merge Cannon: Chicken DefenseMerge cannons, upgrade your wall, and hold off endless waves of attacking chickens.
Alien Invasion Tower DefenseBuild and upgrade four weapon types to stop waves of aliens on every level.
Space WavesGuide an arrow through obstacle-filled levels across multiple worlds.
Rage Fruits Tower DefenseMerge angry fruit into hybrids and hold off waves of monsters.
Space Hex: War Merge ShooterBack to the main gameSpace Alien Invaders is a free browser arcade game you can play right now, no download needed. It works on desktop and mobile, so it is just as easy to pick up at school or during a break at work as it is at home. You park your spaceship at the bottom of the screen and fire laser beams upward while alien UFOs march down in formation. The longer you survive, the higher your score gets.
What Space Alien Invaders is about
Space Alien Invaders is a retro pixel arcade shooter in the classic 2D survival style. Waves of alien UFOs fill the top of the screen and slowly push downward. Your job is to shoot them all before any one of them reaches the bottom or their fire reaches your ship. There are no checkpoints and no health bars to speak of: one hit ends the run, which keeps each attempt short and the score chase going.
Controls and movement
Movement and shooting use just a few keys or the mouse, so the learning curve is about zero.
| Action | Input |
|---|---|
| Move left | Left arrow key or A |
| Move right | Right arrow key or D |
| Shoot laser | Space bar |
| Move (mobile) | Left mouse button or tap |
Alien waves and scoring
Each wave is a fresh formation of UFOs. They start slow but speed up as you thin their numbers, which is where the classic tension comes from. Points stack up the longer you last and the more aliens you clear.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Full formation | Aliens move at a steady pace |
| Few aliens left | Remaining aliens speed up noticeably |
| You clear the wave | A new, slightly harder wave begins |
| Alien or bullet reaches you | Run ends, score is recorded |
Tips for lasting longer
- Stay near the center early so you can reach either side quickly when the formation shifts.
- Pick off the bottom row first: those aliens shoot more often and removing them opens up your sight lines.
- When only a few aliens remain and they speed up, stop chasing and let them come to a predictable path.
- On mobile, keep your finger or cursor just ahead of your ship so small corrections stay fast.
Playing on mobile
Space Alien Invaders runs in any modern browser on phones and tablets. The left mouse button control maps to a tap on touchscreens, so no on-screen gamepad is needed. Screen size does not change the layout, though a wider phone held in landscape gives you a little more visual space to track the alien formation.