Invader Drop: the arcade classic, rebuilt

Five rows of eleven step sideways, drop a row at the wall, and get faster with every one you take down. Four bunkers stand between you and them, and they wear away wherever anything hits them — your shots included. One shot in the air at a time. Nothing leaves your device.

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Play Invader Drop

Insert no coin

Ready when you are

Arrows or A and D to move, Space to fire. P pauses.

←→ or AD to move · Space to fire · P or Esc to pause · a gamepad works too

What is coming down

Each row is worth what it costs you to reach. The back row scores most because by the time you can hit it comfortably, everything in front of it is gone — and the formation is moving fast.

Back row30 pointsThe hardest to reach and the last to fall.
Middle rows20 pointsTwo rows of them, and the bulk of a wave's score.
Front rows10 pointsCheapest, closest, and the only ones that can shoot at you.
The shipup to 300Crosses the top now and then. Worth more the further it has flown — so let it run.

What's better than the arcade

The speed-up is a rule, not a glitchThe original got faster because the hardware drew the survivors one at a time — nobody designed it. It is the best thing about the game, so here it is deliberate, and the panel shows the tempo climbing as you thin them out.
The ship pays for the shotOn the cabinet its score came from a table indexed by how many shots you had fired, so a memorised count got you 300 every time. Here it is worth more the further it has flown, and the number is on screen while you decide.
Bunkers are a place, not a pictureThey erode exactly where they are hit, from either side, and your own shots wear them through. The hole you fire through is the hole they fire back through.
Every bomb is telegraphedA shot flashes at the invader before it drops, so a hit is something you read and stepped into, never something that arrived from nowhere.
Plays on a phoneMove under one thumb and fire under the other, with the cannon held steady while you hold the button. Keyboards and gamepads work too.
Kind to eyes and earsWith reduced motion on, nothing flashes. The sounds are made in your browser — including the four-note march that speeds up with the formation — and one tap turns them off.

Your best games

Kept in this browser only. There is no leaderboard and nothing is sent anywhere.

How scoring works

The front two rows are 10 points each, the middle two 20, and the back row 30 — 550 for a full wave. The ship along the top is worth between 50 and 300 depending on how far it has crossed when you hit it. You get another cannon every 2,000 points, and the wave number goes up each time you clear the formation.

Getting better at it

Take the outside columns down first: a narrower formation takes longer to reach a wall, which buys you whole seconds before each drop. Fire through a bunker only when you have to — the hole you make is the hole their bombs come through for the rest of the wave. And hold your shot when the ship appears at the top: it is worth more the further it flies, and a shot wasted on the formation is a shot you do not have when it passes.

Common questions

Is this the Taito game?

No. Invader Drop is an original game in the fixed-shooter style that arcades made famous: its own formation, bunkers, scoring, ship and sounds, written for this site. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the owners of any arcade game or trademark.

Why does it speed up?

Because fewer invaders march faster — that is the rule this game is built on. On the original it was an accident of the hardware, which drew each survivor in turn and so ran the loop quicker as they thinned out. It turned out to be the thing that makes the game tense, so here it is written down rather than emergent.

Can I shoot faster?

Not on Classic — one shot in the air is the constraint the whole game is built around, and it is what makes hitting the ship a real decision. Relaxed allows two, which changes the game more than the extra lives do.

Why did it pause?

It pauses whenever the tab is hidden, because a game that keeps running while you read a message is a game you lose. Press Play, Space or P to carry on.

Is anything I do sent anywhere?

No. The game runs in your browser. Your best scores, your chosen mode and whether sound is on are kept in this browser's storage and nowhere else.