Alien Invaders
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About This Game
Play Alien Invaders free online. Blast the descending rows of aliens before they reach you. The retro fixed-shooter arcade classic.
How to play Alien Invaders
Objective: There is no final screen to reach, so winning means clearing waves of 24 aliens without letting a bomb hit your ship or an alien descend to your row, pushing your score and wave count as high as you can.
Your ship sits at the bottom of the 400 by 440 arena facing 24 aliens laid out 6 columns wide and 4 rows deep. Move left and right with the arrow keys or A and D, or hold the on-screen arrows; the ship slides 5 pixels per frame and cannot leave the edges. Press Space or up, or tap FIRE, to shoot straight up. Each alien you hit is worth 10 points, and your highest score saves as Best.
Shots are on a cooldown: after firing, the cannon reloads for 16 frames, roughly three or four shots per second, so a missed bullet costs you time. Bullets climb at 7 pixels per frame and vanish off the top. The aliens march sideways as a group and drop 16 pixels every time the formation touches a wall, so they creep toward your row with each bounce.
You lose instantly in two ways. A red bomb reaching your ship ends the run, and bombs fall at 4 pixels per frame from a random living alien, with the drop chance rising each wave. You also lose the moment any alien descends to your firing line near the bottom. There are no lives and no shields, so one hit is fatal and positioning matters more than trading fire. Clear all 24 aliens and the next wave spawns at the top with the counter rising by one.
Tips and strategy
Save the last few
The formation gets faster with every alien you kill, so the final two or three are hardest to track. Thin the outer columns while the group is slow, then commit fully to the survivors before they outrun your aim.
Fire under an alien
Your 16-frame reload punishes wasted shots. Slide directly beneath a target, fire, then move on rather than spraying. Bullets take several frames to climb, so aim slightly ahead of an alien's sideways path.
Dodge, do not tank
One bomb ends the run and there are no shields. When a bomb drops toward you, stop shooting and slide aside. A bomb only connects within about 20 pixels of your ship center, so a small step clears it.
Watch the descent
Every wall bounce drops the whole formation 16 pixels closer to your losing line. If a wave descends faster than you can clear it, target the lowest aliens so nothing reaches the bottom before you finish.
Respect later waves
Each new wave adds a flat speed bump and a higher bomb chance on top of the thinning-survivor speedup, so by wave three or four the opening block already moves like a late endgame. React earlier than you think you need to.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have lives or shields?
No. The ship has no lives and no defensive shields. A single bomb hitting your ship, or any alien reaching your row near the bottom, ends the run immediately. Every score you post is the result of one continuous attempt.
Why do the aliens suddenly speed up?
Their speed is tied to how many are left. Each alien you destroy makes the survivors move faster, and every new wave adds an extra flat speed bonus on top. That is why the last alien in a late wave feels almost impossible to catch.
How does scoring work against the aliens?
You earn 10 points for each alien you shoot, with no separate bonus for clearing a wave. Your highest score is stored in your browser as Best, so it survives a game over and shows up the next time you play.
Can I hold the fire button to shoot faster?
No. The cannon has a 16-frame reload after each shot, capping you at roughly three or four bullets per second no matter how fast you press. Holding or mashing FIRE will not beat the cooldown, so aim each shot instead.