Retronauts Rejoice!
Space Invaders Extreme proves that you can update a classic without embarrassing the original.
Published: June 25, 2008
Thirty years is a birthday very, very few games can claim. Hell, I haven't even technically crossed that threshold yet (though it's quickly coming in just a few months), but the original Space Invaders is one of those games that really is truly timeless. Like Pac-Man, it just seems to have this power to suck the player in regardless of its comparatively lo-fi approach.
Something about the whole process of properly timing shots to hit slow-marching aliens by, to paraphrase Kong from the planet Nintendu 64 in an awesome episode of Futurama where he attacks in video game-inspired form, "shooting where they were going to be instead of where they were," is so purely skill-based that it transcends bits or pixels. Maybe it's because this basic dynamic hasn't been touched that Space Invaders Extreme ends up being so good.
Oh, just about everything else has been thrown headlong into the 21st Century, from the techno-laden title music that features what sounds like a take on the marching sound the Invaders made in the original game to the synesthesiac visuals constantly ripping through the background, but the shooting still takes careful timing -- at least with your normal shot.
One of the biggest changes to things is the ability to temporarily upgrade to a more advanced weapon. Hit four Invaders of the same color in a row and a colored square will drop, pick that up and a meter on the right side of the screen starts slowly draining, and until it's out, you have unlimited, far more powerful shots; red gives you a bomb that destroys nearby Invaders, green quadruples your shot to make hitting targets far easier and, the coolest of the bunch, blue unleashes a constant laser that lances out from the bottom to the top of the screen to instantly destroy any unshielded thing it touches. Hitting four grayish enemies will drop a shield to protect you -- which is invaluable when it comes to the enemies that zig-zag down to the bottom of the screen and detonate if they make it.
But it's not just that you have the same marching enemies that "increase speed, drop down and reverse direction," there are multiple target types now. Shields, massive armored versions, those little zig-zagging bastards and, by far the coolest of all, incredibly creative boss fights that take full advantage of the weapons you can get. Have a shot that's reflective instead of damaging when you fire it at enemies? Perfect, set up a boss that's impossibly armored from straight shots and make enemies drop from the top of the screen that must be hit with proper timing to reflect shots into the boss' side.
It's stuff like this, along with other fights like one where a steady stream of blue enemies to give players an almost unlimited supply of the super-laser to take down another boss that makes things so much fun. But wait, it gets better! Remember the UFOs that would fly above the encroaching armies? They've returned as randomized challenges (usually involving shooting a certain number of enemies within a time limit), which if you pass, unlocks Fever Mode, a time-limited ultra-powerful shot that absolutely wipes the floor with all enemies on screen.
There's quite a bit of strategy involved in the game too, though most of it is for point hounds. For instance, if you take down all of the enemies in a column, you get a bonus. Take out all the enemies in a wave without missing a shot and you'll get even more. Keep chains of enemies going and you'll rack up even more points. Other little plusses, including the ability to turn all enemies into the same color, turn them into power-up-dropping UFOs and so on, encourage a little bit of pre-planning, but it's never forced, meaning anyone is free to pick up on these techniques at their own pace.
It also means the game is almost constantly giving you something new to play with. It's challenging, of that there can be no doubt, but as you re-play levels, you'll notice patterns and more efficient ways of destroying enemies that lend themselves to what I can only imagine will end up being some of the most incredible speed runs of the game ever seen. The potential for those with far more time and obsessive-compulsive tendencies will end up blowing minds.
In the mean time, though, just about anyone can play the game normally and be more than pleased with the offering. Fogeys like us that actually remember playing the games (even if we were wearing feety pajamas in the arcades) will eat up the loving attention paid to the original game, and newcomers will discover the building blocks for a timeless kind of addiction that only the true classics can provide. No matter what kind of gamer you are, you need this in your PSP library.
Something about the whole process of properly timing shots to hit slow-marching aliens by, to paraphrase Kong from the planet Nintendu 64 in an awesome episode of Futurama where he attacks in video game-inspired form, "shooting where they were going to be instead of where they were," is so purely skill-based that it transcends bits or pixels. Maybe it's because this basic dynamic hasn't been touched that Space Invaders Extreme ends up being so good.
Oh, just about everything else has been thrown headlong into the 21st Century, from the techno-laden title music that features what sounds like a take on the marching sound the Invaders made in the original game to the synesthesiac visuals constantly ripping through the background, but the shooting still takes careful timing -- at least with your normal shot.
One of the biggest changes to things is the ability to temporarily upgrade to a more advanced weapon. Hit four Invaders of the same color in a row and a colored square will drop, pick that up and a meter on the right side of the screen starts slowly draining, and until it's out, you have unlimited, far more powerful shots; red gives you a bomb that destroys nearby Invaders, green quadruples your shot to make hitting targets far easier and, the coolest of the bunch, blue unleashes a constant laser that lances out from the bottom to the top of the screen to instantly destroy any unshielded thing it touches. Hitting four grayish enemies will drop a shield to protect you -- which is invaluable when it comes to the enemies that zig-zag down to the bottom of the screen and detonate if they make it.
But it's not just that you have the same marching enemies that "increase speed, drop down and reverse direction," there are multiple target types now. Shields, massive armored versions, those little zig-zagging bastards and, by far the coolest of all, incredibly creative boss fights that take full advantage of the weapons you can get. Have a shot that's reflective instead of damaging when you fire it at enemies? Perfect, set up a boss that's impossibly armored from straight shots and make enemies drop from the top of the screen that must be hit with proper timing to reflect shots into the boss' side.
It's stuff like this, along with other fights like one where a steady stream of blue enemies to give players an almost unlimited supply of the super-laser to take down another boss that makes things so much fun. But wait, it gets better! Remember the UFOs that would fly above the encroaching armies? They've returned as randomized challenges (usually involving shooting a certain number of enemies within a time limit), which if you pass, unlocks Fever Mode, a time-limited ultra-powerful shot that absolutely wipes the floor with all enemies on screen.
There's quite a bit of strategy involved in the game too, though most of it is for point hounds. For instance, if you take down all of the enemies in a column, you get a bonus. Take out all the enemies in a wave without missing a shot and you'll get even more. Keep chains of enemies going and you'll rack up even more points. Other little plusses, including the ability to turn all enemies into the same color, turn them into power-up-dropping UFOs and so on, encourage a little bit of pre-planning, but it's never forced, meaning anyone is free to pick up on these techniques at their own pace.
It also means the game is almost constantly giving you something new to play with. It's challenging, of that there can be no doubt, but as you re-play levels, you'll notice patterns and more efficient ways of destroying enemies that lend themselves to what I can only imagine will end up being some of the most incredible speed runs of the game ever seen. The potential for those with far more time and obsessive-compulsive tendencies will end up blowing minds.
In the mean time, though, just about anyone can play the game normally and be more than pleased with the offering. Fogeys like us that actually remember playing the games (even if we were wearing feety pajamas in the arcades) will eat up the loving attention paid to the original game, and newcomers will discover the building blocks for a timeless kind of addiction that only the true classics can provide. No matter what kind of gamer you are, you need this in your PSP library.
