Aura Games Lab Originals Arcade Action Newest

Pest Wipeout

Name: Pest Wipeout
Author: Aura Games Lab

Zap the swarm of urban pests. Reclaim the city, wave by wave.

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Notes from the studio

From the makers

Our biggest, loudest original: a full-fat Chicken-Invaders-style shooter saved from being a clone by the one thing everyone actually wants to shoot — the pests that ruin a city summer. Deep, juicy, genuinely funny, and — now that every dive and shot is telegraphed — tough but fair.

Pest Wipeout is the most game we've ever put on the site, and it started from a joke that turned out to be a good idea: nobody feels anything shooting cartoon chickens, but everybody has wanted to vaporise a mosquito at 3am. So you pilot a neon bug-zapper along the bottom and HOLD to fire straight up, while the city's worst fly in and lock into a sweeping formation before peeling off, one at a time, to dive-bomb you. Every wave introduces ONE new pest before it starts mixing them, so you meet each threat cleanly: cyan mosquitoes that jitter in a nervous zig-zag, houseflies that loop, armored purple roaches that soak three hits, wasps that spit golden stingers at wherever you're standing, and crows that swoop on broad black wings. Making you hold the trigger rather than spray on auto is what earns the depth — positioning and trigger discipline both matter — and the coordinated formations (tidy grids, then rings, vees and diamonds later on) finally give you something worth aiming at instead of a random drizzle of bugs.

The rest of the depth is in the arsenal and the combo. Green spray-can gifts drop from kills and drift down for you to catch; grab them and your zapper climbs level by level, from a single pulse toward a screen-wide eight-way spread that melts a whole formation in a pass. Bug-coins fall for bonus points, a cyan bug-shield buys you a few seconds inside a protective bubble, and every few waves the run pauses to let you CHOOSE an upgrade — wide zap, bug shield or a bonus-buzz payout. But every hit costs a life, resets your combo, AND knocks your weapon down two levels, so those levels are a lead you have to defend, not a staircase you just climb. Each pest pays its base (6 for a mosquito up to 22 for a roach) times a combo that never hard-caps and only breaks when you get tagged, so a clean wave is worth many times a sloppy one, and the screen tips into overdrive when you're cooking. Every fifth wave is a multi-phase boss with its own health bar and knock-off shield pips — the King Roach hides behind plates you shoot off first, the Fly Queen carpet-bombs and summons her brood, and the Crow Commander sweeps a violet screech-beam and calls in crows — and after the third they loop back tougher so a good run never dead-ends.

The honest flaws are the ones the genre always carries. This is a well-worn shape; the theme, the art and the juice are our contribution, not the core loop, and a purist could rightly call it Chicken Invaders in a roach costume. We fixed our worst early sin — the unfair wall of fire — by telegraphing everything: a dashed line traces exactly where a diver will go before it commits, a yellow warning triangle flags any pest about to shoot, and the first couple of waves send only one attacker at a time, so a death is now yours to own. What's left is the level-loss spiral: get clipped once in a busy late wave and you're suddenly two levels weaker, which makes the next hit likelier, which makes you weaker again, and a strong run can unravel in about four seconds. We softened it with the bug-shield and 1.2 seconds of blinking invulnerability after each hit, but a truly bad late wave can still bury you. When it flows, though — spread roaring, combo climbing, a boss popping in a shower of green — it's the most fun we've built.

One more thing we're quietly proud of: it's all drawn in code, not stamped from a sprite sheet. Every pest, the zapper and the bosses are procedural 2.5D cel-shaded art — a thick dark outline, a lit base, one shadow and one glossy highlight — so a mosquito reads as a mosquito at a glance and the whole cast animates, recolours and dies without a single imported asset.

What we like

+The theme does what it promises: zapping mosquitoes, roaches, wasps and crows is instantly satisfying in a way no chicken-shooter ever managed, and it's genuinely funny
+Real depth for a pick-up shooter. An eight-level weapon you can lose two levels of on any hit, a combo that never caps but breaks when you're tagged, a bug-shield, and a choose-an-upgrade card every few waves make each run a risk/reward read
+Three distinct multi-phase bosses every fifth wave (shield-plated King Roach, brood-summoning Fly Queen, screech-beam Crow Commander) that loop back tougher, so a good run keeps escalating
+Tough but FAIR: every dive draws its path and every shot flashes a ⚠ first, so late-wave deaths feel earned — over juicy splatters, screen shake and an overdrive bloom, on a mouse or a thumb

Worth noting

–It's a familiar shape. The vertical formation-shooter is decades old, and our real contribution is the theme, art and feel, not a new core
–Momentum is fragile: a hit still drops a weapon level and wipes your combo, so a careless stretch bleeds your firepower even though the penalty is gentler than it used to be
–Difficulty still ramps mostly by volume — the very late waves lean on a wall of fire that is fully telegraphed but relentless, and asks for real dodging

Best for: Anyone who grew up on Space Invaders or Chicken Invaders and wants that exact hit with a grin, on a mouse or a thumb, in short escalating bursts. Score-chasers who like a combo to protect.

A candid breakdown from the developers who designed and built this game: what we're proud of, and where it still falls short.

About Pest Wipeout

Pest Wipeout: Urban Invaders is an original formation arcade shooter we built in-house at Aura Games Lab, playable instantly on this page — no download, no other website. Pilot a neon bug-zapper along the bottom of a vivid neon-space battlefield and hold to fire as each wave brings a fresh pest to swarm you: zig-zagging cyan mosquitoes, looping houseflies, armored purple roaches, stinger-firing wasps and swooping crows — one creature per wave, then combined waves once you've met them all. They fly in and lock into a sweeping formation, then peel off to dive-bomb you (every dive and shot is telegraphed, so it's tough but fair). Blast them, dodge their fire, catch spray-can gifts to power your zapper up to a screen-wide level-8 spread, grab a bug-shield for a few seconds of invulnerability, and topple a multi-phase boss every fifth wave. It's Chicken Invaders with the most satisfying targets imaginable.

How to play

Move your mouse or drag your finger along the bottom to steer the bug-zapper (arrows or A and D work too), and HOLD to fire straight up — the ship only shoots while you press, so pick your moments. Pests fly in and lock into a formation that sways and slowly descends, then peel off to dive-bomb you. Clear every pest to advance; catch the falling green spray-can gifts to climb your weapon from level 1 up to a screen-wide level-8 spread, grab the bug-coins for bonus points, and snag a cyan bug-shield for a few seconds of invulnerability. A yellow ⚠ warning flags any pest about to dive or fire, so dodge in time — a hit costs a life, drops a weapon level and resets your combo. Every fifth wave is a boss. Lose all three lives and it's over. Press P or Esc to pause.

Tips & strategy

Hold to fire in bursts — you don't shoot while your finger's up, so keep the button down whenever a pest is in your column.
Never stop moving. Most deaths come from parking under a dropping, a stinger, or a pest that peels off the formation to dive at you.
Protect your combo: it multiplies every kill and only breaks when you take a hit, so a clean, careful wave is worth far more than a reckless one.
Grab every spray-can gift, even at a small risk — a level-7 or 8 weapon throws a wide spread that melts bosses and clears whole formations fast.
On bosses, shoot the King Roach's shield plates off before its body takes damage, and keep strafing during the Swarm Lord's laser sweep instead of freezing.

Pest Wipeout FAQ

How do I play Pest Wipeout?+

Steer the neon bug-zapper along the bottom with your mouse, finger, or the left/right arrows (A and D work too), and HOLD the button (or your finger, or Space) to fire straight up — the ship only shoots while you press. Each wave brings one new pest before it starts combining them, so you meet each one cleanly; they fly in, lock into a formation that sways and descends, then peel off to dive at you. Every dive and shot is flagged first (a dashed path and a yellow ⚠), so it's tough but fair. Clear every pest in a wave to move to the next. You start with three lives, and losing the last one ends the run. Press P or Esc to pause.

How do the weapon upgrades and power-ups work?+

Green spray-can gifts occasionally drop from kills and drift down — catch one and your zapper climbs a level, from a single pulse at level 1 up to a screen-wide eight-way spread at level 8 (more streams and wider spread each step). Bug-coins drop for bonus score, and a cyan bug-shield capsule wraps you in a protective bubble that shrugs off every hit for a few seconds until it fades. Every few waves the game also pauses to let you CHOOSE an upgrade — Wide Zap (+2 levels), Bug Shield, or Bonus Buzz (a score payout). But the weapon levels aren't permanent: every hit costs a life, resets your combo, and drops your weapon one level, so the goal is to climb high and then not get touched.

How does scoring and the combo work?+

Each pest is worth a base value times your current combo: a mosquito is 6, a fly 9, a crow 16, a wasp 18 and a tough roach 22. Your combo goes up with every kill and has no cap — but it snaps back to zero the moment you take a hit. So a clean, careful wave is worth many times a reckless one, and the screen glows into overdrive when your combo is running hot. Watch the yellow ⚠ warning and the dashed dive line — they flag every attack before it lands, so a broken streak is on you; pick off the wasps early, since their stingers are the main thing that can tag you.

What are the bosses, and does it work on mobile?+

Every fifth wave is a multi-phase boss with its own health bar and knock-off shield pips: the shielded King Roach (shoot the shield plates off before its body takes damage), the Fly Queen (a giant crowned fly that carpet-bombs and summons her brood), and the Crow Commander (a giant crow that sweeps a violet screech-beam and calls in more crows). After the third they loop back tougher. The whole game is free, needs no download, and touch controls read exactly like the mouse, so it plays the same on a phone as on a desktop; your best score is saved in that browser.

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About Pest Wipeout

How to play

Tips & strategy

Hold to fire in bursts — you don't shoot while your finger's up, so keep the button down whenever a pest is in your column.

Never stop moving. Most deaths come from parking under a dropping, a stinger, or a pest that peels off the formation to dive at you.

Protect your combo: it multiplies every kill and only breaks when you take a hit, so a clean, careful wave is worth far more than a reckless one.

Grab every spray-can gift, even at a small risk — a level-7 or 8 weapon throws a wide spread that melts bosses and clears whole formations fast.

On bosses, shoot the King Roach's shield plates off before its body takes damage, and keep strafing during the Swarm Lord's laser sweep instead of freezing.

Pest Wipeout FAQ

How do I play Pest Wipeout?+

How do the weapon upgrades and power-ups work?+

How does scoring and the combo work?+

What are the bosses, and does it work on mobile?+