Phoenix is a fixed shooter video game developed for arcades in Japan and released in 1980 by Taito.

The fifth is a fight against a large enemy spaceship, making Phoenix one of the first shooters with a boss battle, an element that would become common for the genre.

Following the game's release in Europe and Japanese arcades in 1980, Phoenix was distributed in the United States by Centuri, where it helped the company turn a profit after a loss the previous year.

[9] The rights to the game for distribution were owned by several companies, including Amstar Electronics who were based in Phoenix, Arizona.

[1][10] Centuri entered into a licensing agreement with Amstar Electronics to release Phoenix in the United States, Canada, and Central and South America.

[14] The Atari 2600 version is missing elements from the arcade original, such as the ability to save high scores, the music, the star field background, numerals representing points when a bird is hit, the smaller birds appearing around the mothership, and has fewer enemies appear on the screen.

[30] In Electronic Games, Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz wrote that the game was favorably compared to other Atari 2600 releases such as Vanguard, Yars' Revenge (1982), and Demons to Diamonds (1982), noting the quality in graphics and control, and stating it "is perhaps the finest invasion title ever produced for the 2600!

[26] The game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Science Fiction / Fantasy Videogame" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.

[33] An anonymous reviewer in Blip magazine concurred that the Intellivision version of Demon Attack was superior, but found that final battle with the mothership in Phoenix allowed Atari's game to stand on its own.

[34] In a retrospective review by Brett Alan Weiss of AllGame the game was awarded a five out of five rating, referring to it as a "one of the most impressive games the "slide-and-shoot" genre has to offer, bested only by Galaga (1981) in terms of sheer enjoyment and replayability" and said that "finely balanced" shooting action combined with "colorfully" animated graphics made Phoenix a classic in shooter genre.

"[27] In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the arcade version of Phoenix at #69 on their list of "Top 100 Video Games", saying that it was one of the better Space Invaders variations.

[35] Discussing the game in Retro Gamer, Nick Thorpe compared the game to Space Invaders, finding Phoenix "considerably advanced" due to its difficulty to predict behaviors of enemies and final boss fight while also noting that it lacked some elements from modern shooters, such as power-ups and a larger enemy variety.

[36] Brett Weiss included the Atari 2600 port of Phoenix in his book The 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987 (2014).

[16] He wrote that the Atari port had rich graphics, crisp sound and excellent gameplay, preserving the feel of original arcade game.

[39] Games that borrowed elements from Phoenix include Space Vultures, Gorf (1981), Pleiades (1981), and Condor Attack (1983).