Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Kill the Attacking Aliens wastes no time dressing up its objective. You fly a ship over Earth and its Moon colony, kill every alien, and prevent falling bombs from erasing the human structures below. That combination gives the game a little more tension than a shooter where everything on screen exists purely to be destroyed. You can clear enemies efficiently and still lose the level if the buildings take too much punishment.

The first thing you need to adjust to is the ship’s unusual attack coverage. Movement works in all eight directions, so dodging and lining up a rescue route can feel flexible. Your cannon, however, only fires left, right, forward, and on the upper diagonals. That means you cannot simply drift around spraying shots in every direction; you must anticipate where alien ships and bombs will be and place yourself accordingly. Once that constraint clicks, the game becomes a brisk positioning challenge.

Alien bombs are both the threat and the opportunity. Taking a hit from a bomb or an alien drains shield strength, but shooting bombs can leave behind power-ups. Faster shots, slower aliens, a shield recharge, and a small score bonus are all useful, and collecting them by firing at them or touching them gives you options when a pickup appears in an awkward spot. The shield item matters most because a depleted shield ends the game immediately.

Seven levels is a sensible length for this kind of arcade design, and the loop after completion has a mean streak: your shots become slower while the aliens fire more often. That is a smart score-chasing twist, because it turns an already demanding defense job into a stricter test of anticipation. Saving every structure for the 250-point bonus is the right target if you want more than a bare survival run.

Graphics

This is a side-view Odyssey 2 shooter centered on a player ship, attacking alien craft, descending bombs, and the Earth or Moon-colony structures you must preserve. The action should be easy to parse because the important targets are straightforward: shoot the invaders, intercept the bombs, and avoid collisions.

Story

The story is pared down to an arcade premise: alien invaders are attacking Earth and its Moon colony, and you are the pilot assigned to stop them. There are no detours from that mission, which suits a game interested in immediate pressure rather than world-building.

What gives the premise stakes is the vulnerability of the buildings. They are not background decoration; their destruction can end a level even if your ship still has shield strength. Defending them makes you feel less like a lone ship chasing points and more like the last line between the aliens and the colony.

The escalation after the seventh level provides the closest thing to a continuing narrative beat. You have beaten the initial invasion, only to be thrown back into the fight under worse conditions. It is simple, but it fits the old-school “hold out as long as you can” spirit.

Overall Experience

Kill the Attacking Aliens is a focused arcade shooter with one worthwhile wrinkle: killing enemies is not enough when bombs are headed for the structures below. That defensive responsibility keeps every missed shot meaningful and makes the best runs feel earned.

Its firing restrictions may frustrate you at first, especially if you expect eight-way movement to come with equally broad shooting. Give it a few rounds. The limitation is where the game finds its character, pushing you to maneuver into proper firing lanes instead of relying on reflexive screen-clearing.

Give this a chance if you enjoy compact, score-driven shooters that ask you to protect objectives under pressure. The seven levels offer a clear finish line, while the tougher repeat cycle and structure-saving bonuses give dedicated players something to master after they get there.

Retro Replay Score

7.2/10