Galaxians

Galaxians was one of those games you'd find on a Flash portal in the late 2000s. It was a simple, straightforward space shooter that didn't try to be anything more than a quick way to pass a few minutes. I remember it being around for years, a familiar name among dozens of other small browser games.

You control a lone ship at the bottom of the screen. Your job is to survive waves of alien ships that descend in formation. At first, they move together, but then individual ships break away in sudden dive-bombing attacks. You fire upward with the spacebar, weaving left and right to dodge their lasers and their kamikaze runs. The main objective is to clear each wave before they overwhelm you. The pace starts slow, giving you time to pick off the formation, but it quickly becomes frantic as more ships peel off to attack. It feels tense and immediate, a game of quick reflexes and narrow escapes.