It surely says something about how crazy the past year has been that the U.S. government officially confirmed the existence of UFOs with 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 game Declassified Space Invaders.
Declassified Space Invaders is essentially a remake of the original arcade classic Space 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 Invaders can be played in-browser right here.
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The images included in Declassified Space Invaders aren'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 in Declassified Space Invaders are from the most recent official release.
Declassified Space Invaders was created by Steven Nass and Peter Henningsen, two copywriters who have tried their hands at making a few itch.io games. There's not much to Declassified Space Invaders as it just features one level of UFO shooting fun, but there wasn't much to the original Space Invaders either and both are certainly entertaining in their own rights. If nothing else, Declassified Space Invaders is 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 Invaders has influenced plenty of games as it was one of the first sci-fi shooters in gaming history. There's currently a Space Invaders movie in the works by Greg Russo, one of the writers of this year's Mortal Kombat film.
Aliens and UFOs have already been the topic of plenty of science fiction games, but recently Fortnite has been showcasing alien content front and center. In June, Epic Games sent out cryptic fliers teasing the start of Fortnite Season 7's alien invasion which just so happened to line up with some of the released documents and photos from the Pentagon.
Declassified Space Invaders is available now to be played in web browsers, but the game's website notes that it doesn't work on mobile devices.