Pixel Aces

Vertical Shooter

Pixel Aces is a classic 1942-style vertical scrolling shoot-em-up, and one of the six free games in the RobuxClicker Arcade. Pilot a World War II fighter up the screen through five hand-built stages, weave between bullet patterns, and bring down a giant boss at the end of every stage.

About the game

If you grew up feeding coins into an upright arcade cabinet, Pixel Aces will feel like home. It belongs to the shoot-em-up genre — "shmup" for short — and takes its cues from the all-time greats of vertical scrolling action: 1942, Raiden and Strikers 1945. Your fighter plane sits near the bottom of the screen while the world scrolls past beneath you, and your job is simple to learn and hard to master: stay alive, shoot everything, and read the patterns the enemy throws at you.

Every sprite in Pixel Aces is drawn from code rather than loaded from an image file. The whole game is data-driven pixel art rendered straight onto an HTML5 canvas, which is why it loads almost instantly and plays the same on a laptop or a phone. The action runs at a native 960 by 540 resolution and targets a smooth 60 frames per second, with delta-time movement so the game stays fair whether your device is fast or slow.

The design leans hard on one idea: fair difficulty. Your plane sprite is large and readable, but the part that can actually be hit is a tiny 16 by 16 pixel box at its centre. The wings and tail are decoration. Once that clicks, you stop flinching at every bullet and start threading through gaps that look impossible. Pixel Aces is built to be picked up in a minute and replayed for the high score for far longer.

Ready to jump in? Launch Pixel Aces and come back here whenever you want a refresher on the controls or the strategy below.

How to play

Pixel Aces opens straight onto a title screen — press start and you are flying. Fire is automatic while held (and always on for touch), so most of the skill is in where you move. The controls below are the complete set.

On a computer

• Move: the arrow keys or W, A, S, D. You can hold two directions at once for eight-way movement, and diagonal speed is normalised so a diagonal is not faster than a straight line.
• Fire: Z or Space. Hold it down — the weapon auto-fires at its own rate.
• Bomb: X or B. Spends one bomb from your stock for a screen-clearing attack.
• Pause: Escape or P toggles pause at any time.
• Start / confirm: Enter or Space.

On a phone or tablet

• Move: touch and drag anywhere on the screen. The plane follows your finger with a small upward offset so your hand never hides it, and movement is relative, so the plane never jumps to wherever you tap.
• Fire: automatic — your guns fire continuously the whole time you are alive, so there is no fire button to worry about.
• Bomb: tap the screen with a second finger while still dragging with the first.

Tips and strategy

A first run of Pixel Aces is usually a scramble. These tips will get you deeper into the stages and onto the high score board.

1. Trust the tiny hitbox. Only the centre of your plane can be hit. When a wall of bullets comes in, do not panic and bolt for a corner — small, precise nudges thread you through gaps that look far too narrow.
2. Spend bombs on purpose. A bomb destroys every enemy bullet on screen instantly, deals 500 damage to everything, and keeps you invincible during the blast. Hold them for boss attack patterns or a wave that has boxed you in, rather than firing them off the moment you panic.
3. Chase Weapon Up, but do not get greedy. Collecting Weapon Up power-ups climbs your gun through four levels, ending in a continuous laser beam. The catch: every time you die, your weapon level drops by one. Staying alive is itself a damage upgrade.
4. Grab a Shield before a boss. A Shield absorbs exactly one hit, which can be the difference between clearing a boss and losing your strongest weapon. Speed Up, which makes you 1.5 times faster for ten seconds, is also worth scooping up right before a dense pattern.
5. Aim for weak points. The Stage 1 boss, the Giant Bomber, has a glowing red core at its centre that takes double damage. Several bosses reward hitting the obvious bright spot instead of spraying the whole sprite.
6. Time the Score x2 pickup. Score x2 doubles every point you earn for fifteen seconds. Snag it just before a big formation or a boss to squeeze the most out of it — and remember it also doubles the stage-clear bonus.
7. Learn the awkward enemies. Aces actively dodge your bullets, so flank them or close the distance. Shield Carriers block damage on their top half, so burn through the frontal shield or slip below and hit the body directly.

Game details

Pixel Aces is a complete five-stage campaign. Here is what you are signing up for.

Five stages

Pacific Ocean, Island Assault, Urban Raid, Mountain Pass and Enemy Base. Each stage has three parallax background layers and steadily ramps up the difficulty.

Ten enemy types

Scout, Fighter, Dive Bomber, Kamikaze, Formation Flier, Turret, Helicopter, Heavy Bomber, Ace and Shield Carrier. New types are introduced stage by stage, so you are always learning something.

Five bosses

Every stage ends with a boss that has a visible health bar: the Giant Bomber, the Battleship, the two-phase Sky Fortress, the Aircraft Carrier, and the three-phase final boss, the Mecha Core.

Four weapon levels

Your gun upgrades from a Single Shot to a Double Shot, then a Triple Spread fan, and finally a continuous Laser Beam.

Six power-ups

Weapon Up, Speed Up, Shield, Bomb, Extra Life and Score x2 all drop from destroyed enemies and drift down for you to collect.

Lives and bombs

You start with three lives and three bombs, both of which can be stocked up to nine. Bonus lives are also awarded at 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 points.

High scores

The top five scores are saved in your own browser, so your personal best is waiting for you the next time you play.

Frequently asked questions