Free shooting games

What are shooting games

In a shooting game you aim and fire at things that move: waves of robot fighters, swarms of neon shapes, tin ducks on a rail or a pirate ship across the bay. The fun is in reading where a target will be and getting your shot there first, while you keep your own ship, tank or snow wall out of trouble. Many of the games here fire on their own, so your real job is steering and choosing where to be.

The shooting games on Kiloo keep things friendly. The targets are ships, robots, cartoon monsters and fairground prizes, and when they are hit they burst into springs and bolts, pop like balloons or topple into a heap of snow. In Fort Cannon the pirate crews are parrots and crabs who jump overboard and paddle off. Most of the games mix hand-built stages that end with a boss, an Endless mode for a high score and a Daily challenge that changes every day.

Shooting games to start with

If you are new to shooters, start with a game that fires for you. In Star Squadron your fighter shoots on its own while you fly it up through ten stages, picking up spread, laser and homing shots from the carriers. Deep Blaster does the same underwater: a little yellow submarine pops pufferfish and robot sharks with its bubble cannon while you steer towards air pockets before the oxygen runs out. Sky Ace puts you in the red biplane of Biscuit the pilot dog, where a loop-the-loop makes you untouchable for a moment and bombs knock out balloon anchors below.

For careful aiming, Target Range is a fairground gallery with a cork popgun and ducks, cans and balloons riding rails at three depths, plus a friendly cat you should never hit. Bow Guard puts you on a castle wall, where arrows fly under real gravity at goblins, wolves and battering rams, so a far target needs a higher arc. Snowball Fight works the same way in winter: pull back, lob snowballs at grinning snowmen and duck behind your wall when they throw back. Fort Cannon turns aiming into a puzzle, with sixty levels of lobs over rocks and powder-keg chain reactions against cardboard pirate hulls.

When you want something faster, Gyro Gunner is a twin-stick neon arena where shapes chase, dodge and split, and Ricochet Arena asks you to bank laser bolts off metal walls into bots that shoot back. Robot Rumble is a run-and-gun platformer in which a small round robot runs, double-jumps and shoots in eight directions through eight stages, each ending with a boss machine.

Controls, devices and tips for shooting games

On a computer, WASD or the arrow keys move in almost every game, and P pauses and M mutes in all of them. In Star Squadron, Deep Blaster and Sky Ace the guns fire by themselves, and you can also steer with the mouse. Gyro Gunner and Ricochet Arena use the keys to move and the mouse to aim. Bow Guard, Snowball Fight and Fort Cannon use the mouse like a sling: drag back, watch the arc and let go. In Target Range you simply point and click.

Every shooting game here also works on phones and tablets. In the auto-firing games you drag anywhere and the ship or plane follows your finger. Gyro Gunner and Ricochet Arena give you two touch sticks, one to move and one to aim, and Target Range only needs a tap on the target. Bigger moves such as bombs, torpedoes and loops get their own buttons on the screen.

A few tips carry across the whole category. Keep moving rather than staying in one spot, and save your bomb for the moment the screen gets crowded. In the games with gravity, check the wind: Snowball Fight shows it with a little flag and Fort Cannon with a windsock. In Target Range you have six corks before a short reload, so pace your shots. Bow Guard shows a dotted aim line on the early waves that shortens as you go, which makes it a gentle way to learn.

Frequently asked questions