Cosmic Defender

Space falls on you one wave at a time, and every fifth level puts something much larger in front of you. Cosmic Defender is an arcade shooter in the old shape — one ship, one lane of sky, one thumb on the screen — and it is not a game of bigger health bars. Fifteen bosses stand between you and the end of a sector, and not one of them fights like another. Each is built around a single idea, and the game is working out what that idea is before it works out you: some you beat by learning a rhythm, some by changing where you stand, at least one by realising that shooting it is not the answer at all. Then you meet them again deeper in with another phase unlocked, and the mechanic that was a nuisance the first time is suddenly running the whole fight.

The campaign runs on levels, waves and a boss every fifth, with stars unlocking new sections and a par time on every level for when clearing it stops being the question. Boss Rush strips all that away and sends one boss straight into the next, scored on how many you put down and how fast. What you earn goes into a ship that stays upgraded — laser columns that burn through whatever stands in them, heatseeking missiles that at full upgrade cannot miss, escort drones that fire alongside you, shields that absorb a hit outright and later pulse to clear the space around you. Between runs you can claim a mining seat that accrues in real time whether the game is open or not, and two global leaderboards track how far you have taken the campaign and how well your best rush went. There are no adverts, no tracking and no advertising identifier, and nothing you have to buy: two optional packs are there for players who want to support the game. It plays offline, your progress lives on your device, and signing in is optional.