What is a fixed shooter? From Space Invaders and Galaga to Neon Siege

The three rules of a fixed shooter

Fixed shooters share a short list of traits. The screen does not move: there is no level to fly through, only a wave to clear. The player is held to one area, usually a strip along the bottom edge, and in the strictest form can only slide left and right. And the enemies arrive from one direction, from the top, so you always know where to look.

Those limits are the point. With nowhere to go and nothing scrolling past, the game becomes a contest of position and timing. You are not exploring; you are choosing where to stand and when to fire while a formation decides when to come down on you.

Space Invaders: the template

Space Invaders put a marching alien formation on screens in 1978 and set the template almost every fixed shooter has followed since. A cannon slides along the bottom. Rows of aliens step side to side above it, drop a little at each edge and shoot back. Bunkers between you and them soak up fire and slowly crumble.

Our Invaders is a faithful recreation of that machine and a good way to see the genre in its purest form. There are 55 aliens in five rows, worth 10, 20 or 30 points depending on the row, and a red mystery UFO that pays 50 to 300. Only one of your shots can be on screen at once, so a miss leaves you waiting while the bombs keep falling. The formation speeds up as it thins out, and every new wave starts lower and faster. It plays on a virtual CRT with scanlines and flicker, inside a cabinet with working buttons.

Galaga and the swooping formation

The next big step was teaching the aliens to move. In Galaxian and then Galaga, enemies no longer just march: they fly in along curved paths, settle into a formation at the top and then peel off one or two at a time to dive at the player. The screen is still fixed and the ship still sits at the bottom, but the threat now comes from anywhere above you, and the formation itself becomes a source of attacks rather than a wall.

That rhythm, a formation that holds and then sends divers, is the most copied idea in the genre. It also explains why fixed shooters reward reading patterns. Once you recognise how an enemy type dives, you can step aside early instead of reacting late.

Fixed vs scrolling and multidirectional shooters

A scrolling shooter moves the screen for you. Vertical scrollers such as 1942 or Xevious push you up through a long level, and horizontal ones carry you sideways. The challenge there is the route: terrain, set pieces and enemies placed along the way. In a fixed shooter there is no route, only the wave in front of you.

A multidirectional shooter frees the ship completely. In Asteroids you turn and thrust in any direction, and in twin-stick games like Geometry Wars you move one way and shoot another. Rock Drift is our take on the Asteroids style: point where you want to go, hold to fly, and the gun fires on its own while big rocks split in two and the sky wraps around at the edges. Put it next to Invaders and the difference is obvious. In one you hold a line at the bottom; in the other, every direction is open and so is every threat.

Rock DriftBlast drifting rocks in a wrap-around skyPlay now

Where the genre went: Neon Siege

Modern shooters rarely keep all the old rules, but many still keep the fixed shooter's core: one arena, enemies in formation above you, divers you must read. Neon Siege folds Space Invaders, Galaga and Geometry Wars into one browser game. Formations fly in on looping paths, settle into a grid that sways and slowly creeps down, and send divers at you one or two at a time, all on a neon vector grid that ripples with every explosion.

What changes is the ship and the pacing. Your ship fires on its own and you fly it with the mouse or a finger, so the game is about dodging and lining up rather than pressing a fire button. After every sector you pick one of three upgrade cards, every fifth sector ends with a three-phase boss, and shards dropped by enemies buy lasting upgrades between runs. The sectors never run out. It is a fixed shooter's battlefield with a modern upgrade loop on top.

Neon SiegeNeon space shooter: alien waves, upgrades, bossesPlay now

Why fixed shooters still work

The genre's limits make it easy to learn and quick to play. You understand the whole game from one screenshot, a wave takes seconds, and every loss is easy to read: you stood in the wrong place or fired at the wrong moment. That is why the format moved so easily from arcade cabinets to phones and browsers. Invaders, Neon Siege and Rock Drift all run free on crokocat with no download, on desktop, phone and tablet.

Frequently asked questions

Guides & tips

• Neon Siege: best upgrades, every enemy and how to break the bosses
• The history of Space Invaders and the 100-yen coin shortage legend
• What happened to Flash games — and what replaced them
• Cube Arena: weapons, map control and the race to 15 frags

Play it here

• Neon Siege — Neon space shooter: alien waves, upgrades, bosses
• Invaders — Defend the Earth
• Rock Drift — Blast drifting rocks in a wrap-around sky