Bomber Invaders

## Background

   Space Invaders was one of the most popular bottom of the screen shooters ever, where the player had to destroy as many invaders as possible that marched overhead in a formation that kept on dropping closer to the player’s laser base. The player could take cover from the invaders’ fire behind four bunkers and a high scoring U. F. O. would also appear several times during a wave. The game started off in the arcades and has been ported to many home systems, handhelds, personal computers and even on the mobile gaming circuit nowadays.

**Bomber Invaders**, an internet-based game, takes the basic Invaders formula but adds many features to it. It was created by Remi Jaguin and was published by Labrasoft in 2013.

## Gameplay

Like with Space Invaders, many invaders appear over the player’s ship that move in a formation. Once the formation reaches a screen edge, it will drop down a notch closer to the player. Invaders fire at the player’s ship, which, once hit, the player will lose a life and the game will end when there are no more remaining lives. The game will also end if an invader lands on the planet’s surface. The player, in the meantime, must shoot all invaders in order to advance to the next level.

A high scoring U. F. O. will also appear during a level that is worth a random amount when shot.

## Game enhancements

Along with the basic Space Invaders-like gameplay, several additional features were added to the game.

With the start of each new game, the player has the choice between choosing from the normal game mode (which is the regular game where the player has three lives to begin with) or the invincible mode (with infinite lives, but scoring is cut in half). There are also five different planets to choose from at the beginning of each game, which the planets vary in difficulty level, ranging from easy to hard. With the easy planets (such as Hydroz), the invaders don’t fire very often and Cosmic Spiders usually do not come out until the last one or two levels, along with them not making many passes at a time. The higher the difficulty level of a planet, the more often the invaders fire, the quicker they will start firing at an angle and the earlier the Cosmic Spiders will start appearing, along with making several passes once they appear. If the player is able to make it through all levels in a planet then they will be taken back to the main screen to choose a planet again, plus they will earn a rank for that planet.

During the game, there are small asteroids mixed in with invaders that take several shots in order to be destroyed and they are not worth any points. Bombs are also included in the formation, which can wipe out several adjoining invaders, other bombs and/or asteroids when shot. Item boxes include power-ups that are released when destroyed. Fire power-ups will also increase the blast radius of bombs when collected. The player can still advance to the next level when all invaders in a level are destroyed but one or more asteroids, bombs and/or item boxes are still left onscreen.

Invaders can also start firing shots that travel at an angle, rather than straight down. Cosmic Spiders will also start coming out in pairs (one right over the player’s ship and one underneath it), which fire a beam that, if caught up in it, the player will lose a life.

Unlike with the original Space Invaders, there are no shields in this game, the player can shoot two shots at a time rather than one and the game is for one player only, unlike two alternating turns with the original.

All planets have 10 levels, which, if the player is able to clear out all levels, the planet is deemed “saved” and then the player can select a planet once more.

### Power-ups

Once an item box has been shot, it will release one of the following power-ups if the player catches it.

* P–worth 500 points
* Extra life–self-explanatory
* Double shot–fires two shots at once; limited in quantity
* Triple shot–fires three shots at once; limited in quantity
* Bomb shot–fires grenades that explode; limited in quantity

## Controls, mission screen

* Choose planet–mouse
* Confirm planet–left mouse button
* Toggle music on/off–click on icon

### (in-game)

* Move ship–arrow keys
* Fire–spacebar
* Toggle music on/off–click on icon
* Pause–click on icon