How to play
Alien Wave is a fixed-screen space shooter in the style of the arcade cabinets of the late 1970s and early 1980s. A formation of 55 aliens, five rows of eleven, marches across a dark screen. Each time it touches an edge it drops one step lower and turns around, and the fewer aliens are left, the faster it moves. You steer a cannon along the bottom and shoot straight up.
Press Enter, click or tap the start button to begin. Line the cannon up under a column and fire. Only one of your shots can be on screen at a time, so a miss costs you the time the shot needs to leave the top of the screen. Clear the whole formation to reach the next wave. The game is over when you run out of cannons or when the formation comes down to the line of your shields.
Rules
- You start with three cannons. One extra cannon is awarded, once per game, when your score reaches 1,500.
- Points per alien: Walker 10, Spinner 20, Chomper 30, Stinger 40. An alien shot down in the middle of a dive is worth double.
- A mothership crosses the top of the screen from time to time. Hitting it pays a mystery bonus of 50, 100, 150, 200 or 300 points, picked at random.
- The aliens drop three kinds of shots: slow orbs, medium twin rails and fast needles. If your shot meets an alien shot, both disappear.
- Four shields stand between you and the formation. Every hit, from above or from below, chips a few pixels out of them, and a shot gets through once a hole goes all the way. Shields are rebuilt at the start of each wave.
- From wave 3 on, single aliens leave the formation, dive at you along a curved path and then fly back to their place. They chew through shields on the way.
- A rare capsule, dropped by a destroyed mothership or diving alien, upgrades the cannon to a double shot: two shots may be on screen at once until you lose a life.
- Every new wave starts lower, marches faster and fires more often.
- The five best scores are kept in a high score table on this device, and a game in progress is saved when you close or reload the page.
Controls
- Keyboard: ← → or A D move the cannon, Space fires (hold it to keep firing), Enter starts a game, P or Esc pauses and resumes.
- Mouse: the cannon follows the pointer while it is over the playfield. Click to fire, or hold the button down.
- Touch: drag a finger on the playfield, or hold the arrow buttons, to move. The big FIRE button shoots, and AUTO switches automatic fire on and off.
The game pauses by itself when you switch to another tab or app. Sound effects stay off until you press the Sound button; Scanlines switches the old-monitor effect.
Tips and strategy
- Trim the sides. The formation only drops when its outermost column reaches an edge. Removing whole columns from the left and right makes every crossing longer, which buys you time.
- Do not spray. With one shot on screen, a wild miss leaves you unarmed for almost a second. Low targets are quick to hit and free the cannon at once.
- Carve a firing slot. A few of your own shots open a narrow channel through a shield. Sitting under it lets you fire while most of the shield still covers you.
- Sidestep the divers. A diving alien aims at the spot where you stood when it left the formation. Take two steps aside, then shoot it as it passes for double points.
- Save the last alien for an upper row. The final alien is very fast, and one from a high row needs many more drops before it reaches your shields.
Frequently asked questions
Is Alien Wave free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download, no account and no payment. Once the page has loaded, it also works without a connection.
How do I get an extra life?
Reach 1,500 points. The extra cannon is added immediately and is awarded only once per game.
Why does the formation speed up?
The pause between two steps depends on how many aliens are still alive. In the first wave a full formation steps about every 0.8 seconds, while the last survivor steps 30 times a second.
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Yes. The playfield scales to the screen, and touch devices get arrow buttons, a FIRE button and an auto-fire switch below it.
Where are my high scores stored?
In your browser's local storage on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and clearing the site data resets the table.
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