3 games
Arcade Shooters
Alien waves, diving formations and vertical scrolling firefights — the coin-op era's sharpest feel.
01 / GAME SELECT
Arcade Shooters
Alien Invasion
Alien Invasion is an online shoot-the-aliens game: a five-by-seven formation steps down row by row while your turret fires by itself, so you only move and aim. The three bunkers break for good, and it plays on a phone touchscreen or a desktop keyboard.
Formation Strike
Formation Strike is an online formation shooter: a squadron breathes overhead and peels off one craft at a time to swoop at you. Your ship fires by itself — you only slide left and right. A leader can drop a tractor beam and steal your wingman; shoot it mid-dive to get the wingman back and fly as a pair.
Vertical Shmup
Vertical Shmup is a free online vertical scrolling shooter: the channel pushes upward, your craft fires on its own, and all you do is weave in two axes and pick up power crates. On a phone you hold the steel plate at the bottom and slide — one thumb, start to summary.
02 / FAQ
FAQ
- What are the old arcade shooting games called?
- Shoot 'em ups, or shmups for short. They split three ways by how the screen moves: vertical scrollers where the field slides past and you weave along the bottom, formation shooters where a grid of enemies presses down, and fixed-gun defence. Nearly every coin-op shooter worth remembering is one of those three.
- How do you dodge bullet patterns in a shmup?
- Watch your ship's hit box, not the whole ship. The part that can actually be hit is far smaller than the sprite, so most gaps are wider than they look. Move in short sideways steps rather than long dashes, and sit in the lower third of the screen where you can see incoming shots for longer.
- Are there shooting games with reduced flashing?
- Yes, every shooter here has a reduce-flashing toggle. Even with it off, no brightness change covering more than a quarter of the screen is allowed to repeat faster than 3Hz, so the default is already safe for photosensitive players.
- Is a keyboard or touchscreen better for shooters?
- The keyboard is more precise; touch is more convenient. Arrow keys plus space give you the fine control that high scores need, while touch puts a stick on the left and a fire key on the right for a quick run. Both mappings are complete — neither one is a cut-down version of the other.