Space Invaders Forever (Switch) Review
In early 2020 the Space Invaders: Invincible Collection was released. Containing five Space Invaders games (nine in the special edition), now many months later comes Space Invaders Forever. A three-game collection containing Space Invaders Extreme, Space Invaders Gigamax 4 SE and Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders. It might not be the collection you were hoping for, but Space Invaders Extreme is a great game. So let’s see how the rest fare.
Space Invaders Extreme is an updated version of what was found on the Nintendo DS. If you played this back in the day, you’d know what to expect here. If you missed it the first time around, Extreme puts an entertaining spin on the traditional Space Invaders. Extreme is a more fast-paced game, throwing all kinds of enemy patterns at you while also introducing power-ups. If you shoot four of the same colour Invaders, you make a power up to collect. These help make quick work of the remaining waves if you can keep the power-ups dropping. If you perform enough combos, you can bring up a UFO that will take you to a bonus stage, getting your score higher.
While there are branching paths as you work through the stages, you’ll need to get through them with higher scores to see them all. To get through the five stages to finish a run it doesn’t take long, although it will take a while longer to complete every stage. I put in a lot of time into Space Invaders Extreme on the DS, and it’s still a blast to play. The faster pace combined with the power-ups and some cool electronic synth music works so well. Extreme makes Space Invaders enjoyable to play; it’s up there with Pac-Man Championship Edition for classics revamps. Extreme is the most likely reason you’re even considering this collection; it still doesn’t disappoint, now if only it included the sequel on here too.
Space Invaders Gigamax 4 SE is a four-player cooperative Space Invaders experience. You share the battlefield with the other players to stop the more traditional waves of Space Invaders. The battlefield has been stretched out to accommodate four players and has many more Space Invaders to deal with.
There are boss fights once you clear them, and that’s where the real challenge lies. The boss has a timer, and you need to whittle down their health by working together and joining ships together for more powerful blasts. You can play this game by yourself if you want, and you can continue playing as long as you want to add credit. Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders is a port of the iOS/mobile game of the same name. This game is a mashup of Arkanoid and Space Invaders. Controlling the paddle or Vaus, you rebound a ball around a screen filled with bricks like Arkanoid or Breakout.
Not only are you clearing bricks, but there are also Space Invaders on the screen firing down on you. Instead of hurting you, you can reflect the lasers up to hit even more bricks and space invaders. You can unlock more pilots that control the Vaus, delving into Taito’s history for characters like Bub the Dinosaur (Bubble Bobble), Lufia (Lufia) or Kage (from the Legend of Kage). Each one has different abilities that can be used during the stage or build an ‘attack gauge’ from reflecting attacks.
The strange thing about Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders is that the game isn’t within the main collection. It is a separate download that sits in addition to the collection which contains Extreme and Gigamax. It’s not strange for collections of games to have multiple launchers, although having one of the three games separate is unusual. It won’t bother everyone, and it doesn’t ruin or impact the game in any way, just be aware that it’s there.
Space Invaders Forever is a nice little collection, even if the main draw is Space Invaders Extreme. Unfortunately, its sequel isn’t included, or any of the classic games the Invincible Collection contained. Gigamax 4 SE is a strange addition as it is a brief distraction, even when you have the right amount of players. Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders can keep you busy for a while if you don’t already have it on a mobile device. Extreme is still the best way to play a Space Invaders game, with the Switch’s portability a bonus. This odd collection is a hard sell, especially when one game is a free to play mobile game, you have to want Space Invaders Extreme to justify this bundle.
Rating: 3.5/5
+ Space Invaders Extreme is the best Space Invaders
+ Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders isn’t bad either
- Gigmax 4 SE is more of a bonus novelty
- Should have just been the Invincible Collection available
Yeah. This really is just a HD version of Space Invaders Extreme with a couple of bonus games. The Gigamax game is rubbish in single-player as it’s a multiplayer experience through and through.
Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders works great if you have a suitable stylus, but it gets a little too difficult too quickly. This can only be played in handheld mode on the touch-screen for those interested.
It’s also a shame that Extreme 2 wasn’t included. Ironically, I hadn’t played the original until Forever (I have the sequel on DS which I bought on impulse back in the day) but the two games are virtually indistinguishable. My guess is that the waves of enemies in each stage and the vivid background video is really the only material difference between them, which makes its exclusion all the more confounding.
The cartridge of the overseas retail edition will spawn separate icons for “Forever” (containing Extreme/Gigamax) and another for Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders.
I already had the (terribly expensive) English physical version of Invincible Collection pre-ordered from Strictly Limited what feels like forever ago. They say they’ll be shipping in February/March, but I’m expecting more delays.
This would have been very easy to recommend if it contained both Extreme titles, but as it stands, it’s a tough sell. The budget price takes the sting out a bit, but diehard fans might want to consider waiting for the Invincible Collection, which contains everything in Forever and a whole lot more.