Super Mario Commander

Super Mario Commander swaps the usual jumping for a gun. Aliens have wrecked a village, burning houses and driving out half its people, and the few who stayed behind are counting on Mario to hold the line. The action stays on one screen at a time, but the aliens arrive in different shapes and patterns, and treating them all the same way gets you overrun fast.

Reading each wave before you fire is the real skill here. Some invaders drop after one hit, others soak up several shots while closing in, and mixing them into the same fight means deciding what to shoot first. Bullets are a limited resource, and burning them on the wrong target early leaves you exposed when the real threat shows up.

How to play

Aim at the aliens as they appear on screen and fire using the onscreen button to bring them down before they reach you. Different alien shapes take different amounts of punishment, so size up a wave for a second before committing your shots to the nearest target. Clearing a screen moves you to the next part of the village, where the mix of enemies changes again.

Controls

Super Mario Commander uses an onscreen button to fire, as given by the game itself. Aim by moving your finger or cursor across the screen and tap the button to shoot.