Eat that Alien scum!

by Christopher Colquhoun

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

For 800 MS points this remake offers casual and hardcore gamers loads of good times retro-style with enough variety to keep things fresh throughout the guaranteed multiple replays

Space Invaders is a game most people are at least familiar with and Space Invaders Extreme completely flips this simple concept on its head by adding a ton of power ups, combo meters and clever variations to the common invaders while presenting itself in intense and psychedelic manner.

Interesting until the very end

Space Invaders Extreme takes the simple game of Space Invaders -- shooting aliens as they methodically move down the screen -- and adds numerous other little tweaks to gameplay. The meat of the game is in its arcade mode which takes you through five stages. Each of these stages takes between five to ten minutes to get through, however the difficulty (especially in the later levels) will have you fighting the many formations of invaders for anywhere between four to six hours. After defeating all the invaders in a level you reach the mandatory boss fight. This is where Space Invaders Extreme’s light puzzle solving aspect is most apparent as each boss has a different, specific way to take it down. You will also notice puzzle solving when fighting the hordes of Space Invaders, however it’s not necessary to progress as it’s just as fun to hammer the A button until the invaders are history.



The most noticeable difference in Space Invaders Extreme from its precursor has to be that the Space Invaders are coloured. By shooting four of the same coloured enemies in a row, a power up drops down the screen. These come in five different flavours such as bombs and thick lasers, which decimate the hordes of invading aliens. The ultimate power up comes in the form of “Fever Time.” You get this when you win a random bonus round (which is detached from the main level and handicaps you in some way). These bonus rounds are a great way to make the game feel more unpredictable, however at about halfway through the campaign you will start to see these repeat more often and their novelty will wear off.

Possibly the second biggest change to the Space Invaders formula is the variations on the standard Alien. There are giant opponents that take multiple shots to take down while some invaders have shields that bounce your shots back. This variety will keep the game feeling fresh and challenging until the last stage.

Space is a lonely place…

The multiplayer is an intriguing concept. Each player gets their own quarter of the screen and you try to outlive your opponents in a Survival mode, with the last ship standing winning the match. Players can also team up to take on the Arcade mode. However, even though the game is fairly recent it can be hard to find players to pair up with, and lag also rears its ugly head, making it hard to get invested in the multiplayer component of this package.

Trying to rack up a high score has never been more fun in the Space Invaders series than here. Killing invaders starts a combo meter which drops if you stop killing aliens. The higher your combo, the higher your multiplier will be until you reach “break” status which gives you more points and even adds some funky music.



The presentation in Space Invaders Extreme can be described as purposefully retro. The music is extremely impressive as each level has a slightly different looping techno beat intertwined with the effects your bullets make while killing invaders. The invaders are blocky and inspire that classic Space Invaders air while looking new and modern. The background is made up of a visualizer that constantly shifts with the music without being distracting.

Space Invaders Extreme takes between 2 to 3 hours to get through the first time (possibly less if you don’t suck) but depending on your performance on certain stages you can advance to harder variants of stages 3, 4 and 5. These branching paths give incentive to play through stages again and again, constantly trying to get a good enough grade (with “S” grade being the best, naturally) to be allowed into these restricted levels.

Summary

Space Invaders Extreme is a novel game that will entertain you for at least one playthrough, and it’s highly likely that you’ll want to play through again and again trying to get to new stages. Although the lag and lack of people makes playing multiplayer a little hard, it’s a fun and unique experience which should be snapped up at its low price of 800 points.