Space Invaders Extreme

June 24,2008 - It’s hard to believe that Space Invaders is thirty years old now. Whether you’re an old school gamer, a returning gamer, or a fairly young hardcore gamer, it’s hard to not relate to those who’ve spent countless amounts of quarters on this Taito Arcade gem. To celebrate its 30th Anniversary, Taito has released an all-new, more intense edition of the game that started the whole arcade-shooting phenomenon.

Space Invaders is as general as it gets. If there’s even a story, nobody cares about it. It’s a fully 2D game that has you in control of an air fighter and it’s your job to rid space of all the aliens that are hoping to kill you. Your plane can only move side-to-side, none of that forward and backward business like Gradius or Ikaruga, and you use the face buttons to shoot your laser at the aliens on the top of screen—which are always layout in a certain design, moving forward and side-to-side on the screen. You’re awarded points for every invader you blast out of space, and if your accuracy remains true, your score will continue to multiply—so chaining is an effective way of earning points.

The name of the game is just shooting everything; that’s the big idea. But what makes this edition of the game “extreme?” Taito has thrown in a few twists to enrich the experience while still maintaining the old-school Space Invaders feel. Aside from the always interesting mid-level minigames that add to your score and fun along with the slightly challenging boss battles, Space Invaders Extreme features certain power-ups that allow your gun to do more than just shoot its primary laser. One of the power-ups is a beam that shoots an entire line of invaders, which also increases your score drastically. In between every army of aliens you kill, a UFO or two will fly about the screen. These quick and hard-to-hit flying saucers multiply your score tenfold if you manage to hit them. But since they’re hard to hit, chaining becomes real hard and affects your score as well. The other twist in the game is Fever Time, which is an opportunity to increase your score after completing a Round. When done, a Jackpot UFO will fly about the screen, and that will get players a special Jackpot Bonus.

Also new to the game is online multiplayer. The PSP version is probably the simpler one of the two handhelds, as all you can do is play competitively via ad hoc. On the DS’ Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, players can play competitively, and the truly skilled ones will earn a spot in the score ranking. In addition to the Wi-Fi multiplayer, DS owners can play with a friend using single-card sharing. Unfortunately, the game is only two players.

While a lot of the twists certainly make Space Invaders Extreme pretty extreme, it’s probably the visuals that do the job more than the gameplay itself. When playing the game at first, especially on the PSP’s wider screen, it can be hard to pay attention to what you’re doing because the neon colors in the background are so mesmerizing. It’s probably our fault we had a lot of early deaths, but it wasn’t easy to contract the actual invaders from the background. But alas, colors are pretty. It improves as you clear the first area though, as they start to be clearer and more pristine along the way. It wouldn’t have hurt Taito’s cause by making the invaders and the air fighter fully 3D, but we’re guessing they thought it would take away from the old-school feel.

The game sounds fantastic. The soundtrack of upbeat techno tunes really gives the game an intense feel, and it does nothing truly annoying. While all the explosions of shooting out every invader are recycled, it’s not like you can make significant judgments on the way an explosion should sound anyway. The game’s sound is definitely one of the extreme high points.

While some aspects of Space Invaders have aged over time, the quality of fun certain hasn’t left. Space Invaders Extreme is the perfect companion on the go, whether or not you have friends with handheld gaming systems. It can keep you entertained on a five-minute way for the bus, and it will keep you busy when the days are slow. With the budget price tag of $20 for both the PSP and DS version, it’s not matter of when or why to get it—it’s a matter of which one you should get. If you’re going to be playing it alone all the time, the PSP version is the way to go because of its wide screen and superior sound quality. If you have friends who enjoy having a little bit of fun, it’s the DS version you want.

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