Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade video game, developed and released by Taito in Japan and licensed to Midway Manufacturing for overseas distribution. Commonly considered to be one of the most influential video games of all time, Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.
Shoot 'em ups are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character movement, while others allow a broader definition including characters on foot and a variety of perspectives.
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 American space opera film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan, a teenager recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also features Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Norman Snow, and Kay E. Kuter.
An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, rhythm games and platform games. Multiplayer online battle arena and some real-time strategy games are also considered action games.
TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Free Radical Design, published by Eidos Interactive, and released in 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The game's story focuses on the efforts of a space marine who seeks to recover powerful time crystals from a race of alien mutants called TimeSplitters, which leads them to taking on the form of an individual dealing with their own problems across different time periods between the 19th and 25th century. The developers focused on expanding the story element following 2000's TimeSplitters, and features influences from various film genres, including Horror, Action and Science Fiction.
Alien Hominid is a run and gun video game developed by The Behemoth and first released as a Flash game on the multimedia website Newgrounds on August 7, 2002. It was originally developed in Adobe Flash by programmer and Newgrounds founder, Tom Fulp, and animator and artist, Dan Paladin. It has since been re-released in several expanded and enhanced iterations for home consoles and computers.
Alien vs. Predator (エイリアンVSプレデター) is a 1994 beat 'em up video game developed and released by Capcom for the CPS-2 arcade game system. It is based on the science fiction franchise of the same name. Introducing an original fighter to the game: Lt. Kurosawa, the players take control of up to three from the selection of four cyborgs and Predator characters in a battle against the Xenomorph hordes and rogue human soldiers.
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a fighting game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS, and PSP, which ties into the "Marvel Nemesis" comic book series. It was released on September 20, 2005, in North America and October 14 in Europe. The game focuses on Marvel Comics characters facing a new team of super villains known as The Imperfects. Upon release, the game received mixed to negative reviews from critics.
Contra is a video game series produced by Konami composed primarily of run and gun-style shooting games. The series debuted in February 1987 with the Japanese coin-operated arcade game of the same name, which has since spawned several sequels produced for various platforms.
Alien Storm (エイリアンストーム) is a beat 'em up shooter released as an arcade video game by Sega in 1990. It was ported to the Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System. The Mega Drive version was re-released on Wii's Virtual Console in 2007 and was also included on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was also re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2022.
Castle Crashers is a 2D side-scrolling hack-and-slash video game developed by The Behemoth. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008, via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. The PlayStation 3 version was released in North America on August 31, 2010, and November 3, 2010, in Europe via the PlayStation Network. A Microsoft Windows version, exclusive to Steam, was released on September 26, 2012. The game is set in a fictional medieval universe in which a dark wizard steals a mystical crystal and captures four princesses. Four knights are charged by the king to rescue the princesses, recover the crystal, and bring the wizard to justice. The game includes music created by members of Newgrounds.
The Simpsons Game is a 2007 platform game based on the animated television series The Simpsons made for the Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. The game was published and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was released in North America in October 2007 and worldwide in November 2007, a few months after The Simpsons Movie. It features an original storyline, not related to the movie, written by Simpsons writers Tim Long and Matt Warburton. In the self-referential plot, the family discovers that they are forced to participate in another The Simpsons video game. Similar to the show, the game pokes fun at popular culture, many other video games, and Electronic Arts, its publisher.
Altered Beast is a 2005 action-adventure beat 'em up video game for the PlayStation 2. The game is a remake of the 1988 arcade game Altered Beast. While the gameplay still involves the main character transforming into different kinds of beasts like in the original, the story, characters and setting are completely different, along with notable gameplay additions. The game was released in Europe and Japan in 2005, but was cancelled for North America.
Space Invaders Extreme is a re-vamped incarnation of the classic arcade game Space Invaders. The DS and PSP versions were released to mark the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders which saw its original arcade release in 1978. An HD version of the game has been remastered by Backbone Entertainment for Xbox Live Arcade with new four-player multiplayer modes and visualizer backgrounds by Jeff Minter, it was released on 6 May 2009 as a wrap-up to the 30th anniversary. The game is played at a fast pace with an electronic soundtrack and sound effects.
Space Invaders is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado in 1978.
Metroid is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo. The first installment in the Metroid series, it was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System in August 1986. North America received a release in August 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the Game Pak ROM cartridge format, with the European release following in January 1988. Set on the planet Zebes, the story follows Samus Aran as she attempts to retrieve the parasitic Metroid organisms that were stolen by Space Pirates, who plan to replicate the Metroids by exposing them to beta rays and then use them as biological weapons to destroy Samus and all who oppose them.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a third-person shooter hack-n-slash video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. The game was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in North America, Australia, and Europe in September 2011. It was released in Japan and published by CyberFront on October 27, 2011.
Earth Defense Force, known in Japan as Chikyū Bōeigun, is a science fiction third-person shooter video game series by D3 Publisher, originating as an offshoot of the Simple series. As of 2024, it consists of eleven entries and six main installments, developed and published by various studios and publishers since 2003, primarily Sandlot. The series follows the titular Earth Defense Force (EDF), an international armed force that fights to defend Earth from alien invasions by extraterrestrials that field massive insectoids in their war against humanity. Individual Earth Defense Force releases generally receive mixed or average reviews, but the series has been lauded for its simplistic but entertaining premise and campy tone, and it maintains a strong cult following.
Pixels is a 2015 science fiction comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, based on a story penned by Herlihy. Loosely adapted from the 2010 short film of the same name by Patrick Jean, the film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Brian Cox. Combining animated video game characters and visual effects, the film involves an alien race misinterpreting video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, to which they respond by attacking Earth with technological replicas of characters from the games. The President of the United States assembles a team of former arcade champions to lead the planet's defense.
