Return of the Invaders/Gameplay

Controls

 * Joystick: Use the 2-way joystick, to direct the Xerovy along the bottom of the screen; it cannot wrap around from one side of the screen to the other.
 * Firing Button: Use this button to make the Xerovy fire bullets up at the invaders; it can fire more rapidly than the cannons of the three previous titles.
 * 1 or 2 Player Buttons: Push these buttons to begin a one or two player game.

Xerovy
This cannon is the protagonist of the game, and you must use it to destroy the Flector formation; direct it left and right, to choose a position to fire from, then time your shots so that they arrive at the location of an invader that you are trying to hit. Use the barricades (or "Xero-Guards") to protect the Xerovy from enemy fire - but, be aware that both your (and the invaders') fire can chip away at them (indicated by their lightings changing colour from blue to yellow to red, before blowing out), and they will also start moving from the third stage onwards. Getting hit by any invader's bullets will result in the loss of one life; however, extra lives are awarded at 30000 points, 80000 points and every 80000 points thereafter by default. To the left is the Xerovy as it appears normally, while below is how it appears after collecting each of the three powerups occasionally carried by the UFOs:

Flector
The four main alien invaders do not bear any resemblances to the originals, but they still behave the same; they remain in formation, as they advance towards the bottom of the screen. The entire formation will either circle around as they move downwards, move to the right or left until the far column reaches the side of the screen then drop down and move back towards the other side of the screen, or move downwards - and the lowest invader of every column shall fire bullets down to the ground (the red ones can be blocked by the Xerovy's shots, but the blue ones cannot). If any one invader manages to reach the bottom of the screen, the game will immediately be over (regardless of how many lives the player has remaining).

Legard
These new "deflector" invaders can only be killed if you shoot them dead-centre; if you wing them, they will deflect your shot back at you (which shall kill you if you cannot move in time). When you do kill one, it will leave one of four "mystery" invaders behind, worth between 400 and 10000 points:

The fourth type of "mystery" invader also bears a resemblance to Nintendo's Mario, and when killed, they will drop down to the bottom of the screen and hold up a notice saying the Kanji text 1 Man-ten (1万点), which means "10,000 points" - and you may not want to kill all of the next new type of invaders.

Zicon
If three or more of either of these new "master" invaders are left (at the end of any stage), the text "CHALLENGING STAGE" will appear on the screen, as they fly up to the top of the screen and transform into one of three types of "Mother Ships" (any shields present will also automatically explode); they will then fly around above you while sending out eight types of "bonus" invaders, which are each worth 300 points when killed. Once you fire enough shots at the "Mother Ship" to destroy it, the text "BONUS: INVADERS XX X 300 = XXX00" (XX being the number of invaders you killed and XXX00 being their resultant point value) will appear upon the screen with a picture of the "Mother Ship" and its point valuation (10000, 20000 or 30000) below it - and, the text "TOTAL - XXX00 + 1/2/30000 = XXX00" will then appear on the screen (XXX00 now being the bonus invaders' point value, both before and after that "Mother Ship" value is added to it). The three Mother Ships and the eight "bonus" invaders are depicted in the two galleries below:

UFOs
As in the three previous titles, saucers (now known as "UFOs") appear randomly, over the formation; they'll appear on one side of the screen and cross over to the opposite side. During this time you can attempt to shoot them for bonus points - and the point value that is awarded once again appears to be random, but now ranges up from 500 to 3000. They will also occasionally be carrying powerups (the blue "Gazel" is depicted in the image to the left - but there is also the yellow "Goral", and the red "Gowl"), and if you do not shoot the UFO dead-centre (if you do, you shall destroy the powerup), the powerup shall fall onto the Xerovy, and bestow its power upon it.