Alien Invasion is an original browser arcade shooter. A formation of five rows by seven columns sweeps sideways above you and drops one step every time it touches the edge. You move the turret along the bottom and it fires on a fixed beat by itself. The fewer aliens left, the faster the formation marches — every bit of that speed-up is something you caused. Three bunkers sit between you and them, and both your shots and theirs punch holes that never grow back. A hit costs one of your three lives; run out, or let the formation reach the line, and the run ends.

Drop a coin in and the screen fills with a tidy grid of aliens walking down one step at a time, while the three slabs at your feet get chewed away. The cabinet by the arcade door was always the easy one to read: no combos to memorise, no map to learn, just left, right, and one shot after another. What makes it hard is that it speeds up — and the speed is yours: every alien you take down makes the rest march a little harder.

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1. 01

   Tap the field once to start. On a phone, hold the control track under the field and slide; on a desktop use the left and right arrow keys, or A and D.

2. 02

   The turret fires by itself — there is no fire button. Space or K on a desktop takes the same path; it nudges the shot, it does not raise the rate.

3. 03

   Each wave opens with a short pause: the formation holds still and does not shoot, but you can already move and fire. Your opening shot always connects during it.

4. 04

   Aim at the lowest alien in a column. In every column, the one nearest you that is still alive is the one shooting back at you.

5. 05

   Esc or P pauses at any time, and the pause panel carries three lines of help. The tempo meter on the left of the top bar lights up as your kill count rises, so you can see how much faster the formation can still get; the sound and reduced-flashing chips beside it are one tap away in every state.

Take the outside columns first: a cleared column narrows the formation, which makes each sweep longer and the next drop later. Do not rush the bottom row. It pays least, and killing it only moves the shooting job up to whatever is still alive in that column. A bunker is something you can spend: firing up through your own cover buys you a lane, at the price of a block that never comes back. That lane works both ways — the shaft you opened is the one their shots come down. Step aside once you have used it. The fewer aliens are left, the faster the formation marches. The last few get noticeably tight, so move the turret to their side before you finish them. Do not count on shooting their bullets down: shots from the two sides pass through each other, so dodging means moving or putting a bunker in the way. The invulnerable stretch after you respawn is the only time you can stand in the rain — enemy shots go straight through you. Use it to cross to the safer side or to rush a column, rather than standing still until it runs out.

How do you play an alien shooter game on phone and desktop?

In Alien Invasion you move the turret sideways to aim while it fires by itself, and clear the formation before it steps down onto you. On a phone, hold the control track under the field and slide — one swipe crosses the whole field, and touch has no fire button at all. On a desktop use the arrow keys or A and D; Space or K takes the same firing path and does not raise the rate, and Esc or P pauses.

How do you get a high score in an alien shooter game?

Go for the top row of the formation first: in Alien Invasion each alien up there is worth 30 points, three times the two rows nearest you. Clearing the outside columns narrows the formation so each sweep takes longer and the drop comes later. You can also punch a firing lane through your own bunker, but that block never returns, so decide before you spend it.

How does scoring work in an alien shooter, and what is a full wave worth?

Alien Invasion scores by row band: 30 points for each alien in the top row, 20 in the middle two rows, 10 in the two rows nearest you. Clearing a whole wave adds 100 points times the wave number, so a perfect first wave is 730 points. Shooting your own bunker scores nothing — that is the price of the lane.

Why does the alien formation speed up as you shoot it?

The interval between formation steps depends only on how many aliens are left and which wave you are on. The fewer survive, the shorter the gap, so the last few march very fast. It is not random difficulty and not a timer: the acceleration is entirely your own doing, which is why the order you clear them in matters. The tempo meter in the top bar of Alien Invasion lights up as your kill count rises, so you can read how much faster they can still get.

Do the bunkers in an alien shooter grow back after a wave?

No. Alien Invasion never resets or repairs a bunker: any block destroyed by your shots, by theirs, or by the formation pressing down on it is gone for the rest of the run. Every hit also rolls a 35% splash check on the neighbouring blocks still standing, so cover collapses faster than you expect. It is a one-off defensive budget — spend it for a firing lane if you like, but every later wave is then fought on an open field.

How many waves are there, and does it get harder forever?

Waves have no end, but the difficulty converges at wave seven. The formation starts lower on each of waves one to five and then holds its height; the gap between enemy shots keeps shrinking, those shots keep getting faster and the march keeps speeding up until wave seven, and the cap on enemy shots on screen tops out at wave five. From wave eight on, every one of those holds at its wave-seven value while the score keeps climbing.

How many lives do you get, and what happens when an alien shot hits you?

Alien Invasion gives you three lives a run: an enemy shot costs one, and the run ends when the third is gone. A hit freezes the screen for a short transition, and the turret comes back flashing — that flashing stretch is invulnerable, so enemy shots pass straight through it without costing a life or disappearing. There is a second way to lose: if the bottom of the formation reaches the ground line the run ends at once, with no life lost and no transition.

What was that arcade game with aliens marching down the screen called?

The genre name is the fixed shooter: one turret sliding along the bottom, a formation of aliens stepping down row by row, and a few bunkers in between that both sides can destroy. Alien Invasion is an original browser version of that core loop — open the page and play; progress stays in this browser on this device.

Which alien shooter game can you play one-handed on a phone?

Alien Invasion had its touch layer rebuilt for a phone held upright: the control track sits below the field with zero overlap with the battlefield, so your finger is never in the shot lane, and firing is always automatic, so a single thumb takes you from the first wave to the summary with no second button to press. A run is decided by its seed — use the copy-link button on the summary and whoever opens it plays the same run.