Face Invaders: Defend Earth

Galactic Beach Party is live — ten beach levels paying double gems, plus 300 more for clearing all ten. Until 31 August.

Defend Earth with a bouncing ball, a paddle ship, and your friends' faces stuck on the aliens.

Face Invaders is a one-thumb arcade game. Steer your ship, bounce the ball up into the swarm, and pop the invaders before they punch through Earth's shield. Easy to pick up, tricky to put down.

Here's the twist: open Invader Studio, hand it a few photos, and your friends become the aliens. Give them names and they'll be announced when they turn up as a boss. Their faces never leave your phone.

WHAT'S INSIDE • 120 levels across 12 galaxies, each with its own look and mood • 12 giant bosses, one per galaxy, every one of them wearing a face • 61 alien designs, so no two galaxies send the same invaders at you • Power-ups: multiball, wide paddle, piercing fireball, overdrive • Eight upgrade tracks — guns, ball, hull, shield, luck, magnet, cannon, auto-fire • Ten ship hulls in the Shipyard, bought with gems you earn by playing • Three mini games: Whack-an-Alien, Gold Rain and Meteor Dash • Seasonal events with their own aliens, gems and double rewards • A medal for every galaxy you finish

PLAYS THE WAY YOU EXPECT One thumb, portrait, iPhone and iPad. No timers, no energy bars, nothing to wait for. Every level plays the same way each time you retry it, so a level you lost is a level you can learn.

FAIR BY DESIGN No ads, ever. No accounts. No tracking. You can buy gems if you want to move faster, but everything in the game can be earned by playing — and the mini games pay their own separate currency, so nothing is locked behind a purchase.

YOUR PHOTOS STAY YOURS Face Invaders has no photo-library permission and cannot browse your album. You hand it individual pictures through the iOS picker, face detection runs on your device, and the crops stay inside the app. Nothing is ever uploaded.

Questions or bugs: fi.echelon.im/support