Forty paper aliens come down over the search results
They start in five rows above the fold and shuffle sideways in lockstep. Touch either edge and the whole formation drops a row and reverses. That’s the entire pressure of the game and it has never needed anything else.
What’s underneath them is a page of results, four torn shields, and one cannon. The shields wear away in chunks as things hit them, from either direction, so hiding under one costs you the cover you’ll want later.
the speed problem
The fewer aliens are left, the faster the rest move. It isn’t a difficulty setting, it’s a side effect of how the thing redraws, and it means the last two are harder than the first thirty. The final one moves across the screen quicker than you can track it.
what each row is worth
Clearing a wave rebuilds the formation lower down with everything moving quicker. Three cannons is what you get, and a shot that reaches the bottom row takes one away.
rapid fire
The original allows one shot on screen at a time, which is a real constraint once things speed up. There’s a toggle here that lifts it. It makes the game easier and much louder to look at, and it’s the honest way to see the later waves without an hour of practice.
where the shields go
Each shield is a slab of paper that loses a bite wherever something lands. Your own shots chew them from below. Rebuild is on a button because most people wreck all four in the first two waves and then wonder why wave three is impossible.
the rest of the arcade
If you want a maze instead of a firing line, google pac-man has four ghosts and 165 dots to clear. google block breaker points the same idea upward with a paddle and bricks.
For one-button running, dinosaur game is the one everyone has already played by accident. google games snake is the other grid classic and the easier one to pick up.
And zerg rush google reverses the roles entirely, sending a swarm at the page while you click to hold it off.