Space Invaders Extreme (DS) Review
It’s not uncommon to see the classics of our gaming history remade every once in a while, in order to mark a particular milestone in the franchise’s legacy. Space Invaders Extreme is developed by Taito Inc., the same company who designed the incredibly influential extra terrestrial shoot em up in 1978. Now, a whopping thirty years later, Taito have revamped their classic shooter into something that really changes the way players will look at Space Invaders for some time to come.
Back in the day, when Space Invaders was only playable in arcade cabinets, the only way to get colour on the screen was through cellophane over the Arcade Cabinet’s display. Thirty years later and we see an amazing jump in graphical quality. All the invaders and the backgrounds the game takes place on are colourful, vibrant and alive. It really does do it’s part in increasing the speed of the game. The invaders themselves look greater than ever, and although they haven’t received any major graphical updates, they do appear pixellated in a very charming homage to the appearance of the original game. In keeping with the graphical style of the game, the newer effects that have been implemented into Extreme are rendered in the same pixellated fashion.
The gameplay in Space Invaders, for those who have been living under a rock, comprises of several enemies entering from the top of the screen and slowly approaching the player’s ship on the bottom, dropping bombs along the way. It is the player’s job to eliminate all these invaders before they reach the bottom. In the original Space Invaders, there were four barriers which slowly deteriorated with each shot from the invaders, which protected the player’s ship from incoming fire. In Space Invaders Extreme, however, many conventions of the classic Space Invaders gameplay has been reworked or completely removed all together. All the invaders are now differing sizes, with multiple shots being required to take them down. In addition, enemies are now colour coded, meaning that they drop differing power ups (including lasers, explosive shots and “wide shots” which take out multiple columns using only one shot) and chaining together kills of the same colour will reward players with bigger score bonuses.
Who can forget the UFOs, which hovered across the top of the screen and rewarded players with a nice bonus if they were to destroy them? Well, in addition to the colour coding, the UFOs can now initiate small mini-games known as “rounds” which require players to destroy a certain number of enemies within a set time limit, with a higher score being rewarded should they be completed successfully. The gameplay has been tweaked in all different manners, further in the ways previously mentioned, in order to provide the game with fast paced gameplay that many gamers may have found ruining any ability to enjoy the franchise. In addition, at the end of each stage, a boss character emerges. The boss enemies in Space Invaders Extreme require some effort to defeat and take the form of giant sized invaders with differing amounts of weak spots. The bosses are nicely designed without ruining the style of Space Invaders but shouldn’t pose too much of a problem to veteran arcade players.
Additionally, Space Invaders Extreme extensively uses the second screen of the Nintendo DS in order to increase the size of the battlefield during boss encounters and also during the aforementioned bonus rounds.
What’s perhaps the most interesting feature of the DS version, however, is its function of displaying a remote enemies screen during the exclusive Wi-Fi Multiplayer mode. Players can use either single cart or multi cart to blast through the game together, with the remote player’s progress being mimicked exactly as they see it on the second screen. It really is a great feature that makes the DS version shine. Additionally, online support is provided, which is a nice touch considering the targeted price point of the title.
Space Invaders Extreme’s biggest drawcard is perhaps the soundtrack that essentially ups the ante with the gameplay. In similar vein to Lumines and Meteos, the game incorporates an eclectic soundtrack consisting of very heavy electronica which flows specifically with the player’s actions. It really does add a lot to the game, advancing the series from the monotonous dots and beeps as the invaders approached the player character.
There’s really only one thing wrong with Space Invaders Extreme, and that’s the re-playability. Outside of those who compete for the higher score (and it’s probably interesting to see if anyone plays Space Invaders for any other reason), there really isn’t any reason to complete the game again once players have completed its five chapters. Other than that, while the game does last, it’s a blast to play and doesn’t “wear out its welcome”, so to speak.
Space Invaders Extreme is a competent revamp of an otherwise classic gameplay formula. The fusion of high speed electronica with vibrant, rich and full colours makes it a joy to play by yourself or with a friend. It is definitely one for any fans of the series and with such a rich history, who hasn’t played and enjoyed Space Invaders anyway?
