Spire Assault
Run and gun · Free · No install
A twenty-stage pixel-art run-and-gun. You run right, you shoot everything, and the ground keeps trying to get rid of you. Free in your browser, with a keyboard or on-screen controls.
Play Spire Assault ▶What the game is
Spire Assault is a side-scrolling action game in the spirit of the old arcade run-and-guns. Each of its twenty stages is a long run from the burning outskirts of a city towards the Spire at its centre, and every stage ends with its own boss: a walking siege gun, an armoured train, a dredger beached on a tidal flat, and stranger things further in.
The stages fight back as much as the soldiers do. There are acid pools, conveyor belts that carry you or work against you, a lunar quarry at 0.45g where every jump floats, and stretches where the camera moves on whether you keep up or not.
Controls
| Keyboard | Touch | |
|---|---|---|
| Move | A D | Pad on the left |
| Jump | Space | JUMP |
| Crouch / drop through a platform | S / S + Space | Pad down / down + JUMP |
| Aim up | W | Hold up on the pad |
| Shoot · kick · bomb | J K L | FIRE · KICK · BOMB |
| Get on or off a bike | K beside it | KICK |
| Grab a staggered soldier · throw it | K beside it · K again | KICK · KICK |
| Pause · fullscreen · sound | Esc F M | II · FULL |
On a phone, hold it sideways: the game asks you to turn it when the picture would be too small upright.
Weapons that fuse
Pick up a special weapon while you already hold a different one and the two fuse into a third for twelve seconds. When the time runs out you keep whichever one you picked up last.
- Shotgun + heavy MG make a flak gun.
- Rockets + heavy MG make a missile MG.
- Shotgun + rockets make a cluster launcher.
Tricks worth knowing
Soldiers make good shields
Kick a soldier off balance, then grab him before he recovers. He soaks up his friends' fire in front of you until he gives out, or until you throw him at them.
Take their bikes
Shoot a biker off his machine and it is yours. A bike is faster than running, has a gun on the front, and takes the hits meant for you until it blows up and throws you clear. A bike clears every gap in every stage.
Tips
- Time a weapon pickup so the twelve seconds of a fused weapon land on a boss or a crowd.
- A grabbed soldier is worth more held than thrown while the fire is heavy; throw him when it eases.
- When a bike shows up before a stretch of gaps, take it: it clears every one.
- When the camera starts moving on its own, keep up with it rather than hanging back at the edge.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. It plays in the browser with no install and no sign-up.
Does it keep my progress?
Your progress is kept in your browser on this device. Clearing the browser's site data clears it too.