Although there were times when things didn’t necessarily move in the same direction, it was pretty easy to pigeonhole the games that made up the horizontally- and vertically-scrolling countdowns that preceded this instalment in my series of top ten favourite shoot ‘em ups. However, with this one, we need to start making some concessions and applying some caveats, although in the grand scheme of things, none of them really matter so I hope you won’t mind… This time out, we’re counting down fixed, single-screen shoot ‘em ups but I’m going to make some allowances because “fixed” implies on a single horizontal or vertical axis – think Space Invaders – while “single-screen” implies no scrolling – also think Space Invaders! What about Centipede though, which allows for mostly horizontal movement but a very limited bit of up and down too? Or Moon Cresta, and that shimmering starfield moving down the screen behind all its brutal action?

For the sake of simplicity, as well as me not having to create more of these things to complete the series (as much as I’d be happy to!), if it’s fixed and single-screen in spirit then it’s in! And honestly, I’d rather bend a few (possibly self-imposed) rules to include a few games I think should be in my top ten than exclude them for some that I don’t. And with that, let me quickly set the scene… As said, I’ve already done the horizontal and vertical versions of this countdown, which ended up spread across way more time than initially intended, so this one is coming a bit sooner! From there, in a similarly sooner fashion, I’m planning on giving the same treatment to multi-directional shooters, isometric shooters, 3D shooters and possibly rail or light-gun shooters, although I’m increasingly of the opinion that the latter isn’t in the spirit of any of the rest. I do have an even bigger conundrum about what’s “3D” and what’s on-rails to sort out before that though, which is maybe solved by you’re playing third-person in one and controlling a cursor from a first-person viewpoint in the other but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it! In the meantime, let’s jump straight into my top ten favourite fixed, single-screen shoot ‘em ups, starting at ten, counting down to one, a paragraph on each, then a handful of honourable mentions to finish. Sound good? Then let’s go!

10. Sasuke vs. Commander (Arcade)

I’ve had all this planned out for ages, then along came The 400 Mini and Wavy Navy, an Atari 8-bit game (pictured back up the page) I’d always assumed I wouldn’t like but it turns out I love it and it very nearly took this spot at the last second, but I’ve decided to stick to my throwing stars, and stick with SNK’s Sasuke vs. Commander from 1980 instead! “Sasuke protect my life from ninja” is all the instruction you need, as you patrol the bottom of the screen, protecting the Shogun by chucking shuriken at the baddies as they appear from a puff of smoke then swoop down to attack in waves, although the biggest danger comes from their falling bodies after you shoot them, making for some unique hit and move strategy! Also possibly unique at the time was bosses, emerging from the big pagoda in the background every two levels with their big weapons! Not sure that was a first but it was close if not, although it is more of a bonus level about avoiding attacks and timing a lethal shot back, with more points awarded the faster you do it but no real penalty if they get you. Funny (and another case of very early) cutscene when you do eventually lose all your lives though, with you running and unceremoniously tripping over a rock! It plays out against a simple but very colourful Feudal Japan nighttime scene, switching to a stormy mountain (albeit a very primitive one) for the bosses, while sound is simple blips, swooshes and beepy jingles. It does borrow from Galaxian in particular but definitely does its own thing all over the place, and does it well too, as it soon becomes a fast-paced but methodical and addictive test of skill.

9. Space Cyclone (Arcade)

Taito had already reused the original Space Invaders circuit board several times already before this did it again in 1980, but like the excellent Lunar Rescue before it, wasn’t just a Space Invaders respin as others had been… All the same, two years was a lifetime as the golden age of the arcade game got into its stride, meaning uptake for Space Cyclone cabinets was low; in fact, its legendary status now amongst arcade gamers is mostly down to its subsequent rarity! You’re moving your rocket ship left and right to shoot down attacking Bems, the insect cyborgs riding on meteors that act as the main enemy. Eventually, they’ll drop down off the meteors, and if you let them land they’ll start building their own rocket carrying a cyclone cannon, which will launch into space and do you no good if you let them complete it! It’s not the last time we’ll encounter any of them here so I won’t go into detail but it all gives it a bit more of a Galaxian or even Phoenix kind of feel than Space Invaders, and I reckon it’s a real hidden gem, with its primitive synthesised speech shouting stuff like “we’re coming” and “gotcha” throughout the battle, and the glittering star-field and multicoloured cartoon explosions when you get hit by the lighting-bolt laser from one of the big UFOs! It’s loads of fun too, doing its own thing with new strategies to learn but not forgetting where it’s come from either, which all combines to keep you coming back for more, even all these decades on!

8. Missile Command (Arcade)

Something else that won’t be for the last time in this list is having to make a really tough decision about which version I’m including – the list of titles here came pretty quickly but even as I write these very words, it pains me that I’m not talking any one of the Atari 2600, 5200 or 8-bit conversions, not to mention Super Missile Command on the Lynx! Not so much the 3D one on the Jaguar though… Anyway, it’s all a mark of not only the game’s quality but also the timeless simplicity of both the presentation and mechanics behind this masterpiece from 1980, where you’re defending six cities from ballistic missiles raining down on them by shooting back from your three bases at the bottom. Actually, the latter is why I went for this version in the end – auto-firing from whichever base is closest in the ports is great fun in itself but having control of all three independently – each with a limited supply of their own missiles – adds a real layer of strategy that’s not there otherwise. You originally aimed using a cursor controlled by a trackball but fortunately it’s no Breakout, and translates perfectly to pad or stick, with a real sense of progression as you get further and further, stage by stage, as new weapons and enemy vehicles delivering them are introduced, and things get even more frantic and desperate as more missiles keep coming, then start splitting, and there’s trails all over the screen and the panic sets in as another city goes down, and your aim goes all wrong, and better luck next time! The threat of nuclear annihilation might not be what it once was but you don’t need that to keep enjoying this all-time great arcade game!

7. Phoenix (Atari 2600)

Yes, I know this should be another case of the arcade version we’re talking about here but I’ve only ever dabbled with that, and I’ve loved the Atari 2600 port for decades, so what can you do? Anyway, there’s far greater crimes against Phoenix still to come… Atari’s arcade game right at the end of 1980, with the 2600 port following in 1983, which pretty faithfully follows its five stages of increasingly terrifying alien attacks, culminating in the frantic space fortress boss stage before looping and playing a bit harder. Actually, that final stage contains the most noticeable compromise, with none of the aliens swarming around the boss structure you’re trying to penetrate, but it compensates by coming at you down the screen more aggressively, and it’s still a real thrill-ride, not to mention a very impressive one for the time, with such scale in both versions! While there are less aliens elsewhere too, and it’s lost the starfield in the background and the music, it’s a hell of a conversion all the same, full of variety, plenty of colour, no flicker, and nailing the feel of the original as it veers across its usual suspect influences, as well as getting those horrific, regenerating big phoenix-things absolutely spot-on, with some fantastic wing-flapping animation to boot (until you shoot one off at least)! All the aliens have all the moves though, and even your temporary force-field will only get you so far as you jump from one attack wave to another, and a couple of loops in its such a crazy good time… Just remember you need to use that space at the back of the instruction manual to record your best scores because like most 2600 games, start a new one and it’s gone forever!

6. Galaxian (Arcade)

I’m not entirely sure about this but I think Namco’s answer to Space Invaders from 1979 was possibly the first arcade game I ever played, which I assume would have been around 1980 or 1981, so I’d have been eight or nine years old. Whenever it was, those sound effects will always be unforgettable, with that ominous, rhythmic throb and high-pitched wail that announces the aliens peeling off from the main attack formation to dive-bomb you! As seemingly simple as it may be, it’s amazing to think what a step-up in gameplay the latter provided over its inspiration too, introducing new demands on your shooting skills as well as making it a much tougher challenge overall. Apart from that, it’s left and right along the bottom of the screen business as usual – so elegant, so effortlessly playable, and still utterly addictive! Full of its own character too, with pioneering use of sprite colouring and animation (and some very nice explosions!) bringing unique personality to its more insect-like menagerie of enemies to shoot at. That goes for the marvellous Atari 2600 version of this one too, which is one of the best arcade ports on the system! Which gives me an idea for a future top ten… Watch this space because I really love the idea of getting into that one!

5. Space Invaders Part II

It was inevitable that at least one of the series that started it all was going to make an appearance here sooner or later! Actually, it indirectly started it all for me as well, with Grandstand Invader From Space, although I decided not to include handhelds, tabletops and other such types of electronic games here, so maybe something else we can return to sometime. Back to the real deal though, it turned out that the first game(s) did alright for Taito, so in 1979 we got the sequel, which was more of the same shooting waves of slowly descending aliens from behind your diminishing shields but also introduced new gameplay mechanics like enemy reinforcements, aliens that split in two and its rainbow showers. It also had an attract mode, which I think was a gaming first, as well as another by having an end of level cutscene of sorts, with the final invader flying off in a space ship and sending out an SOS message! Otherwise, the iconic look and feel (and ominous sound effects) are more or less what we know from the colour version of the original, and as such, that probably makes this my favourite game of proper Space Invaders, although if it didn’t exist that first game would be the one you’re reading about here instead. It does though, and as much nostalgia as I have for its predecessor – as well as the small matter of it probably being the most influential video game of all time – this is the one for me!

4. Galaga ‘88 (PC-Engine)

I’ve not really tried to avoid more than one game from any given series in my top ten here but as we’ve just seen (and will do again), it’s usually a case of one or the other. However, while this is officially the third sequel to Galaxian, it’s something else again, so here it is! Similar story to Phoenix from earlier too, where Namco’s 1987 arcade original is wonderful and all but the 1988 PC-Engine port is where I know and love it the best. By the way, I should say this is also known as Galaga ‘90 in the US on the TurboGrafx-16, where it arrived a year later again. Whether here, arcade, NES, mobile for a while or elsewhere, Galaga in one form or another has always been my thing though, expanding on the Galaxian formula with more complex alien waves and more depth, including the Boss Galagas at the top of the screen who don’t just take more hits but will also suck you up in a tractor beam given the chance, which in turn adds more depth with the opportunity to rescue your captured ship from them using subsequent lives and then fight on with dual ships… Or they could just end up being another alien to shoot at if you screw it up! This concept goes further in Galaga ‘88, where the boss aliens can suck up two of you, in turn giving you the opportunity for a triple fighter! It’s now also made up of five worlds of four stages, with branching paths, boss fights and four endings, plus the bonus stages where this game’s excellent music really comes alive. The rest is more of a lick of paint, with new colour and cuteness to the aliens and some cool backgrounds, and this port just gets the lot right – another case of one of the best on the system, and just one of the most interesting and most enjoyable takes on this theme anywhere.

3. Millipede (Arcade)

Unlike the last one, I’m simply going with the original version but on any given day I might have included the Atari 8-bit port instead, and the 2600 port is all you could ever ask of it too! Actually, it could easily have been its predecessor as well, or, indeed, a couple of less official takes on it, but I’ll come back to those! Millipede, by Atari in 1982, arrived a year after Centipede, bringing more of the same but a lot more of it, although it’s all a bit magical this time out too, with your Bug Blaster being replaced by an elf called Archer, defending the mushroom forest by moving left, right and up and down a bit too, shooting arrows at the giant millipede descending down the screen. As you hit its segments, it will split and separate and continue descending until you eliminate them all, as well as a new variety of other insects, each with their own attack and often some risk-reward point scoring, depending on how close they are when you shoot them. If the millipede hits an obstacle (such as a mushroom) on the way down, it will come down quicker to bypass it, so you want to manage them if you can too or it can be on you in a flash if it comes up against a few at once, although it gets so frantic soon enough that you’ll be doing well just to keep up with the millipede, which does seem more aggressive than its centipede counterpart! You can shoot the odd DDT bombs for a bit of explosive relief though, and you’ve also got bonus-type levels where you take on a swarm of something for a change too. And for a bit more challenge, you can choose a higher scoring advanced mode from the outset too. Presentation is very simple but with so much going on it becomes atmospheric in its own way, and the gameplay is more than enough to keep it going by itself, with every go a different experience depending on what you shoot and when. It might be another one of the first games I ever played but it’s stuck ever since and, no doubt, always will.

2. Arcadia (VIC-20)

From one of the first games I ever played to the first game I ever bought, Arcadia on the Commodore VIC-20! Of course, I had no idea at the time quite what a marvel this 1983 Imagine Software mash-up of Galaxian, Phoenix and another game I don’t want to spoil just before we get to it this was! Quite the introduction to the hobby too because if you ever wanted an example of old-school tough then this is it! You’re piloting a ship that goes left and right and up and down a bit more than Millipede did, fighting your way through eight races of the most mean-spirited aliens you can imagine, from literal swarms of arrows that slowly descend towards you as they travel at much higher speed from right to left, to bullet-spewers to swoopers to these horrible birds that attack from below as well as above! There’s even one race of beautifully colourful butterflies that absolutely hate you! Actually, that’s exactly how the rest of the game feels about you too, so thank goodness it doesn’t feature the twelve types found in the also excellent Spectrum version (but maybe steer clear of the crappy, much later C64 version altogether). However many there are, the variety in both how they look, which is generally simple but with more colour and animation than you’d normally see in this kind of game on here, and also how they play, will keep you coming back forever, and while some races will really push you to the edge of sanity, it’s just about loop-able with forty years of practice! Very effective animations too, as well as all the chaotic beeps and blips, but the gameplay goes way beyond both its very obvious influences and the presentation, pulling everything together in a unique and brutally addictive package of its own!

1. Gorf (VIC-20)

Aside from it being the version I owned and enjoyed and played the most, there’s a very simple reason why this port of Gorf tops my list rather than the 1981 Midway original, and that’s my colourblindness, and in particular the problems it causes with the weird blue background in the opening level – it’s not a total showstopper but all the pioneering synthesised speech in the world can’t change that. Apart from the robotic taunting though, and the missing Galaxian level that’s missing from all ports (for Namco reasons), this is the real deal, and it’s the best of all the ports, and it’s one of my favourite games of all time! It’s also very similar in concept to Phoenix, taking inspiration from elsewhere (including that game!), adding some bits of its own, and turning it into a four (or five) unique stage masterpiece, which I just happen to enjoy marginally more than I do those in Phoenix… Sorry! Right, level one is Astro Battle, and it’s effectively a very authentic version of Space Invaders, apart from a destructible parabolic shield spanning the entire screen. Next is Laser Attack, where you’ve got two formations of enemies, one with a giant laser attack while the rest swoop, and I think might be vaguely original! Unlike the very blatantly-named “Galaxians” level we don’t have in this version! What we do have is the superb Space Warp next, which plays a bit Gyruss down a 3D-ish tunnel, albeit two years before that, though I guess Tempest did appear around the same time, but not for the last time here, I’d never seen a game move in 3D like this before Gorf did and the whole concept just blew me away! That glorious, guttural sound here too! By the way, I know definitions on those other two games may vary but more on them I’m sure when we get to 3D shooters! Finally, we have the Flagship level, which is similar to that final boss level in Phoenix, where you need to penetrate its structure and get at the grinning alien inside, and is probably the most impressive thing I ever saw on a VIC-20 – hard to believe now but the size of it was just the biggest and baddest thing I’d ever seen on a computer screen at the time! Beat that and it loops, and like Phoenix, the further you get, the more you get out of it, with every stage performing brilliantly in its own right, and somehow combining the thrill of all its constituent parts into this absolute masterpiece of a port, and of a game that you just can’t leave alone!

As timeless as many of these games are, as a sub-genre, I think the fixed, single-screen shooter is very much of its time, which is reflected in the mix of systems we’re seeing represented here – with one (relative) exception it’s more or less pure early eighties, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! The same is true of a few honourable mentions I want to close with that didn’t quite make the cut… As said before, 1983’s Wavy Navy for the Atari 8-bit computers has made a real recent impact on me, with your ship going up and down on the waves adding a real extra dimension to the old formula. Right back at the other end of my own gaming spectrum, Jeff Minter’s Grid Runner on the VIC-20 the year before added its own thing to an already-superb sci-fi take on Centipede too, with X-Y axis laser beams bringing all sorts of new danger! And speaking of Centipede, that insect-zapping beauty from 1982 (and possibly some of its ports) would have made the list too had it not been for its more fully-featured sequel, and I also want to quickly mention its VIC-20 Caterpilla clone which I loved at the time! Staying with the VIC-20, although pick the 2600 version if you prefer, there’s also Demon Attack from 1982, which might be a lawsuit-worthy rip-off of a stage from Phoenix but it’s a good one, and I can’t think of any better box art for any other game ever – look it up if you’ve not seen it! Last couple, and you can see Super Space Invaders ‘91 pictured just above here, which is a really fun, more frenetic, “modern” spin on the original, and in turn is a European slight reworking of Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV from 1990. And last up, all the way back at the top of the page you can see Bally-Midway’s 1982 arcade game Satan’s Hollow, which, as well as its hellish theme, also introduced a bridge-building mechanic to the genre! And Wavy Navy aside, would have been next in line here so also deserves a mention. That’s it, but do keep in mind there’s some stuff you might have included that I might have pigeonholed elsewhere in a future countdown, and in the meantime, I do hope you enjoyed reading this because I really enjoyed putting it together – possibly more so even than its horizontal and vertical counterparts but do give them a read if you haven’t already! Then I’ll hopefully see you pretty soon when we do the same again for isometric shoot ‘em ups!

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