Free space games

What makes a space game

A space game takes place up there: among asteroids and nebulae, on a moon, on a station ring or on the way to the stars in a rocket. Space suits games well because it has its own rules. Ships drift with momentum, gravity on the moon barely pulls, and air and power run out unless you plan for them, so the setting changes how you play and not only how things look.

That is why the space games on Kiloo come from so many categories. There are arcade classics with ships and alien craft, a shoot 'em up with bosses, a tower defence game on a space station, an idle game and a colony builder, a pinball table, a low-gravity platformer, an anti-gravity racer, a rocket you build and fly, and a typing game for children that flies to the moon. Whatever kind of game you like, there is a space version of it here.

Space games to start with

For quick arcade rounds, Asteroids puts you in a lone ship among tumbling rocks that split into smaller, faster pieces when you shoot them. Invaders has a formation of fifty-five alien craft march closer while you fire from behind four crumbling shields. Comet Catcher slides an astronaut and a net along a moon deck to catch comets while dodging black rocks. Star Squadron is a full shoot 'em up with ten stages, stacking power-ups and a multi-phase boss at the end of each one.

If you like moving rather than shooting, Moon Bounce is a platformer with long, floaty jumps and an oxygen bar you keep topped up with crystals. Nebula Racer is anti-gravity racing through neon tunnels over three laps against five rivals. Pinball Planet is a full table with a Saturn ramp, planet bumpers and a black hole that swallows the ball.

For slower, thinking games, Orbital Defense has you bolt turrets onto a station's outer ring and hold off fifteen waves of machines. Star Forge grows a reactor core into a humming station that sends out probes, and Colony Moon asks you to keep power, air, water and food flowing to every module of a moon base. Rocket Workshop lets you stack engines, tanks and fins and fly the result, and Type Rocket is a first typing game where every correct key lifts a rocket towards the moon.

Controls for ships, rockets and stations

The flying games use the keys you would expect. In Asteroids the arrow keys or A and D turn the ship, W or the up arrow thrusts and Space fires. Invaders moves with the arrows or A and D, and Star Squadron flies with WASD, the arrows or the mouse while the ship fires on its own. Nebula Racer steers with the arrows or A and D and boosts with Space or Shift, and Pinball Planet flips with Shift or Z on the left and the / key on the right.

Every space game here also works on a phone or tablet. The arcade games show on-screen buttons or let you drag to move, Nebula Racer steers when you hold one half of the screen, and the building games use taps and drags. Star Forge keeps up to eight hours of progress while you are away, so it suits a quick check on a phone now and then.

Frequently asked questions