UFO: Cowlifter

An interstellar cattle heist, starring Mox NPC.

Earth has cows. Your mothership wants them. All you have is one small, wobbly flying saucer, and down there is an army that really doesn't want to share.

Cowlifter is a 2D action game inspired by the 80s classic Choplifter. Your UFO flies like a lunar lander: rotate, thrust, fight gravity and keep an eye on the fuel gauge. Hover over the pasture, beam the cows aboard and haul them back into the green beam of your mothership, while turrets, tanks, helicopters and fighter jets do their best to shoot you out of the sky.

What you do

• Abduct cows with your tractor beam. The saucer holds five at a time, so plan your trips.
• Rescue alien friends stranded on Earth. Land close enough and they climb aboard.
• Drill for diamonds. Touch down over a buried gem and... DRILL, BABY, DRILL!
• Land softly. Come in too fast or at an angle and your hull pays for it.
• Refuel and repair. Grab fuel barrels as they parachute down, and hover in the mothership's beam to patch up your hull.
• Fight back with your death ray. Or beam up a soldier, if you're feeling cheeky.

From the farm to the far side of the galaxy

• Green grassland with barns and fences
• The Egyptian desert, with pyramids and the Sphinx
• Frozen seas full of ice floes, submarines, destroyers and a giant zeppelin
• The Wild West: canyon ranches, towering mesas, old gold mines and a radar jammer that scrambles your radar
• Area 51 at night: free your captured friends while dodging the searchlight of the Obelisk of Light
• Deep space: zero gravity, splitting asteroids and pixel monsters
• And a final showdown with the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in the flesh. Er, in the noodle.

Day and night levels alternate, and every level is open from the start, so you can jump straight to the one you want.

Features

• Lunar-lander flight physics with fuel, gravity and landing gear
• 10 levels, ending in a multi-phase boss fight
• 10 achievements
• Best time and best progress saved for every level
• Full controller support (Xbox layout), with rumble in Chrome and Edge
• Touch controls on phones and tablets
• English and German
• Settings for sound, music, vibration, flight instruments and alien color (green or gray)
• Nearly everything you see is drawn in code, and all sound effects and music are synthesized live in your browser

Controls

Keyboard

• Rotate: Left / Right arrow or A / D
• Thrust: Up arrow or W
• Tractor beam / drill: Space, Down arrow or S
• Death ray (drills when landed on a diamond): X, F, Ctrl or J
• Pause: P or Esc
• Sound / music on or off: S / M (on the title screen and in the pause menu)

Controller (Xbox layout)

• Rotate: left stick or D-pad
• Thrust: X or RT
• Tractor beam / drill: B or LT
• Death ray: A or RB
• Pause: Start

Touch

• On-screen buttons for rotate, thrust, beam, fire and pause

Tips

• Watch your speed before touchdown. Turn on Settings > Instruments to see when a landing is SAFE.
• The mothership repairs you faster the longer you stay in its beam.
• Lasers bounce off water, so submarines can only be hit while surfaced.
• Click Mox on the title screen. Mox loves a good selfie.

Good to know

• Runs right in your browser. Chrome or Edge recommended.
• Sound starts after your first key press or click, and a controller shows up after you press one of its buttons. Browsers insist on that.
• Progress, best times and achievements are saved in your browser's local storage.