Galactic Strike

Galactic Strike is an arcade shooter on a rail. Your fighter slides along the bottom of the screen while alien swarms fly in, form up and dive at you.

How to play

1. Each wave, forty enemies fly in and form up at the top, then peel off to dive at you, firing.
2. A shot, or an enemy flying into you, costs a ship. You start with three.
3. When the last enemy falls, catch the power-ups and dodge the shots still falling. The next wave starts once the screen is clear.

Later waves are faster and fly in new ways, and standing still is never safe for long. Continue on the title card picks up a paused game at its wave's start.

Bosses

Every tenth wave is a boss with a health bar. At half health it's enraged: faster, with more to every attack.

• Hive Queen (wave 10): fans and sprays of slow spores, and her brood diving at you.
• Lancer (wave 20): a red warning line, then a laser down it. Also fast needles. Enraged, it drags two lasers across the field: stay between them.
• Warden (wave 30): spirals of shards, homing missiles, and mines that burst into rings. Shoot missiles and mines down.

Then they come round again, tougher. Each is worth 5,000 points (more each time), a ship and bonuses.

Enemies

• Drones (green): two hits from wave 25.
• Stingers (red and blue): two hits from wave 11.
• Commanders (gold): two hits, three from wave 15. From wave 8 they may stop aside and fire a fan.

From wave 8, enemies fire as they fly in and drop bombs timed to land on you. Before a bigger battle or a boss, an extra G falls in with the banner.

Power-ups

Enemies sometimes drop a capsule. Fly into it.

• G: your gun goes up a level, to a five-way spread. Usually one a wave, likelier after you lose a level.
• R: rapid fire for nine seconds.
• S: a shield that takes one hit, for twelve seconds.
• +: an extra ship, up to five.
• ★: 500 points.

Losing a ship drops your gun one level and ends rapid fire.

Skills rounds

Every third wave is a skills round: forty enemies fly through without firing. Each hit scores 100; all forty pays 10,000 and a ship.

Controls

• Keyboard: ← → or A D to slide, Space to fire. P or Esc pauses.
• Mouse: the fighter follows the mouse. Hold the button to fire.
• Touch: hold ◀ or ▶ to slide, and FIRE to shoot.

Scoring

Diving enemies score more. The top ten games go on the high-score table with your initials; the leaderboard ranks each player's best.