Zulu Hour

Alien is attacked by hostile aliens! While politics tries to negotiate, a part of the military is more interested in guerrilla warfare. The player either takes control over Jack (slower space ship which can take more heat) or Sam (fast, but fragile) in order to save Earth.

Zulu Hour is a vertically scrolling shooter. The progression is simple: alien ships enter the screen to be killed and, when that feat is done, the next ones enter. This repeats until the level is over, usually after a boss fight. While fighting it is important to dodge enemy bullets because they decrease the health and eventually lead to death and the need to restart from the last checkpoint. Killed enemies may leave behind health, weapon upgrades (for example two or three shots at the same time; collecting the same upgrade multiple times increases speed) or special weapons: sidewinder missiles, heat-seeking missiles or EMP missile (freezes enemies in a radius). The target (heat-seeking) respectively target direction (EMP) is chosen with the right stick before firing; the sidewinder is directly controlled after launch. In some missions, the perspective changes from top down to behind-the-ship and the player needs to reach (respectively bomb) within a time limit.

Besides the campaign, there is also the arcade mode available which is basically a high-score chase. The three variants are score attack, survival (enemies become stronger every 30 seconds) and respawn score (the game lasts for a certain amount of time, e.g. one minute, and enemies respawn all 15 seconds). Multiplayer is only available in arcade mode.