It surely says something about how crazy the past year has been that theU.S. government officially confirmed the existence of UFOswith now declassified images and testimonies to very little fanfare or public outcry. Two independent game developers decided to make the most of the declassified UFO images by creating the browser gameDeclassified Space Invaders.
Declassified Space Invadersis essentially a remake ofthe original arcade classicSpace Invaders, but the white alien sprites that are creeping ever closer to the player have been replaced with the declassified UFO images released by the Pentagon earlier this year. The images certainly aren’t very high quality, but they get the point across. The game jokes about the image clarity of the photos in its description saying simply “Earth is under attack. And the threat is very blurry.“Declassified Space Invaderscan be played in-browser right here.
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The images included inDeclassified Space Invadersaren’t the only UFO media that’s been declassified and leaked by the Pentagon. The past several years have seen a handful of sporadic press releases by the U.S. agency, but the ones inDeclassified Space Invadersare from the most recent official release.
Declassified Space Invaderswas created by Steven Nass and Peter Henningsen, two copywriters who have tried their hands atmaking a few itch.io games. There’s not much toDeclassified Space Invadersas it just features one level of UFO shooting fun, but there wasn’t much to the originalSpace Invaderseither and both are certainly entertaining in their own rights. If nothing else,Declassified Space Invadersis a fun reminder of the early arcade origins of the cover-based shooter genre.
As more and more information about UFOs and the beings that we likely share the universe with is leaked or officially announced, it’s likely that more game makers will take inspiration and incorporate them into upcoming titles.Space Invadershas influenced plenty of games as it was one of the first sci-fi shooters in gaming history. There’s currently aSpace Invadersmovie in the works by Greg Russo, one of the writers ofthis year’sMortal Kombatfilm.
Aliens and UFOs have already been the topic of plenty of science fiction games, but recentlyFortnitehas been showcasing alien content front and center. In June,Epic Games sent out cryptic fliers teasing the start ofFortniteSeason 7’s alien invasionwhich just so happened to line up with some of the released documents and photos from the Pentagon.
Declassified Space Invadersis available now to be played in web browsers, but the game’s website notes that it doesn’t work on mobile devices.
