Space Games Online: Shooters, Planet Defense, Racing and Puzzles

Updated

Space games online are mostly shoot 'em ups: one ship against waves of alien enemies, with upgrades between waves and a boss to finish the level. Around them sit defense games where you protect Earth or a city, spaceship and rover races, endless dodgers through asteroids and towers, and puzzles with planets, stars and bubbles. Below are the kinds, habits for the shooters and games from the space games collection.

Kinds of space games

KindWhat you doStart with
Shoot 'em upsSurvive waves, upgrade your ship, beat the bossStellar Assault
Free-aim shootersMove and aim separately against swarmsStarship Ducks
Planet defenseStop meteors and invaders before they landNOVAGUARD: Sky Defense
Racing and flightRace spaceships and rovers across planetsAstro Racing
DodgersFly as far as you can without a hitXRacer 2
PuzzlesSort, match, connect and pop in spaceOrbit Pals

Shoot 'em ups: waves, upgrades and bosses

  • Stellar Assault asks you to survive 40 waves in one of four ships: the nimble Interceptor, the hard-hitting Destroyer, the evasive Phantom or the heavily armored Dreadnought. Every wave you survive earns upgrade points for repairs, weapons, shields and combat drones. Mini-bosses come every 5 waves and big bosses every 10. Move with WASD or the arrow keys and fire with Space.
  • Galaxy Warriors shoots down formations of alien fleets that fire back. Enemies drop credits and boosters, credits upgrade your ship, and strong bosses wait along the way.
  • Space Guardian fires its laser automatically whenever an enemy is above you; Space, J, K or Left Ctrl fire rockets. Watch the red health bar in the upper left, since every hit costs health and score.
  • Space Destroyer has 3 stages with 3 bosses in each.
  • Spaceship Destruction has 7 levels from easier to harder, with energy items, bombs and shields to collect.
  • STARFORGE BOSS RUSH is one boss per level: dodge projectile patterns and survive fights with several phases, shooting with a click or a touch.
  • Space Arena throws waves of scouts, fighters and heavy transporters at you, with upgrades for fire rate, multi-shot and shields.

Shooter habits:

  1. Upgrade before the boss waves. Stellar Assault sends a mini-boss every 5 waves and a boss every 10, so spend points on the hull and shields before those waves.
  2. Pick a ship for how you play. Stellar Assault's four ships trade speed, damage, evasion and armor.
  3. Keep the bomb for a crowded screen. NEON SPACE DEFENDER puts a wipeout bomb on Space.
  4. Watch your health, not only the enemies. In Space Guardian a hit also costs score.

Free-aim shooters and space combat

  • Starship Ducks is a low-gravity lunar shooter where every shot pushes your duck paratrooper backward. Pick one of four jetpacks, then survive waves of drones, gunships, tanks and bug swarms, taking one of two upgrades between waves. WASD thrusts, the mouse aims and fires, and Space is the jetpack.
  • Alien Quarantine has 20 missions aboard a research station overrun by aliens: three waves and a larger boss per level, plus power consoles to restore and crew to rescue. Right click throws a grenade and E uses consoles.
  • Mech Core: Survivor puts a heavy mech against endless alien swarms. Nanites from defeated enemies level you up with Rapid Lasers, Homing Missiles and EMP Shockwaves, and auto-fire is on by default.
  • NEON SPACE DEFENDER fights endless waves of enemy asteroids with a radar, a choice of ship and upgrades for weapons and armor.
  • Space Combat is a 3D spacecraft fight against AI opponents in 3 modes. W boosts, Q and E rotate, Z and X change throttle and the mouse buttons fire.

Planet defense

  • NOVAGUARD: Sky Defense is one finger: tap anywhere in the sky and the nearest battery detonates an interceptor there. Kills inside an explosion set off more explosions, so one well-placed shot can chain many targets. Hold to charge a bigger blast, and fight through six sectors with six bosses.
  • Meteor asks you to shoot down every incoming meteor before it reaches Earth.
  • Space Defense Idle fires at an invading ship when you tap it, with upgrades for your own power and your allies.
  • Astro Destroyer blasts endless waves of asteroids with a tap and collects power-ups on the way.

Racing, flight and driving on other planets

  • Astro Racing runs 10 alien planets of 5 laps each, from Luna Base to the Warp Zone. Hit warp boosts and avoid ion clouds, which flip your controls; finish first to open the next planet.
  • Space Rover drives a six-wheeled rover across courses on Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Io and Titan to reach the landing zone fast. Shift is the boost, Space locks the brake, C changes the camera and R resets the rover.
  • Meteorite Miner pilots a ship to collect minerals while avoiding traps, buying new ships and a better drill as you rise from office worker to space miner.
  • SpaceFrontier launches a rocket: separate its stages at the right moment and see how high, and to which planets, it can fly.
  • Gravity Range lets gravity swing your ship around each gravity point; take them all to reach the next level.

Endless dodgers

  • XRacer 2 pilots a fast spaceship close above a city of moving buildings, collecting credits for the shop.
  • Retro x Racer dodges endless towers with A and D.
  • Space Surfer glides through a tunnel of light as your ship follows your mouse or finger.
  • 5 minutes in space has one goal: last five minutes while your ship, which follows the mouse, avoids the missiles.
  • Space Junk keeps an astronaut alive in a room of space junk; collect the blue lights for more air.

Space puzzles

  • Orbit Pals sorts alien pals between planets. Tap a planet to lift the pals at its edge, then tap another to send them; they land only on their own kind or an empty planet, and each planet fits four. A Daily Puzzle keeps a streak.
  • Galaxy Pop is a bubble shooter with limited shots: bounce off the walls to reach tricky spots, across 1000 levels. Tips for the genre are in bubble shooter tips.
  • Stellar Connections links stars to reveal hidden shapes over more than 100 levels.
  • SpacePuzzler and Planets Match 3 are match-3 games: swap neighbours to line up three or more.
  • NovaBrick Rush is a brick breaker with multi-ball, slow ball and paddle power-ups; Space launches the ball.
  • Black Hole Solitaire moves every card into the black hole by counting up or down in value, with rules close to TriPeaks and golf solitaire, explained in pyramid and TriPeaks solitaire rules.

Space games FAQ

Can two people play space games together?

Yes. Space Mission has Player vs Player and Battle vs CPU modes, with player 1 on the arrow keys and G and player 2 on WASD and L. In Alien Catcher two agents catch aliens together, and Infinity Star Squadron takes 1 or 2 players on a computer.

Can I play space games on a phone?

Many of them. NOVAGUARD: Sky Defense is built for one finger, Orbit Pals and Galaxy Pop are tap and drag, and NEON SPACE DEFENDER has a virtual joystick and a fire button. The site works in the browser of a phone, a tablet and a computer.

More shooters, rockets and planets are in the space games collection, and habits for aiming in any shooter are in shooting games tips.

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