Space Invaders. Absolute classic. Nobody is going to forget it in a hurry. Thirty years later, though, and someone thought it needed to be extreme. Space Invaders Extreme is the result of mixing Space Invaders with Rez in a sort of psychedelic shooter sure to keep you playing until your thumb hurts.
I'm not sure what state the world is in, but I'm guessing this pilot doesn't care. Grab your handheld of choice and start shooting these aliens.
Fun Times
Originally released for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, with some differences between the two, Space Invaders Extreme is as simple as the original game. You move a ship to avoid incoming fire, and send shots back into the sky yourself, as you thin down the ranks of aliens flying above your head.
But there's a difference. An extreme one. A few of them, and they make Space Invaders into a right spectacle.
Shoot aliens in the right manner and not only do you get to make some music, Rez-style, but you also get new weapons in the form of power-ups that allow you to decimate the contents of your screen. A laser beam can be unleashed to wipe everything from view until it runs out. Bombs can be hurled to dish out massive splash damage and destroy multiple targets at once. Broad shotgun-like shots can increase the chances of you hitting that last little bastard that always dances away from your shots by the slimmest of margins.
All of these weapons are colour-coded and tucked away behind those aliens, so targeting the foes with the weapons you want might be your best option for dealing with the enemy - especially when they now come in different sizes and equipped with shields of their own.
As you make mincemeat of the alien invasion force, racking up the points in ways I simply don't understand and don't need to worry about, you'll earn little breaks from the action in the form of mini-games.
You'll be given a set and short amount of time to defeat a specific number of aliens in some form or other, with the reward being a return to the main game in a Fever mode, where everything is a party and scores have an awful lot of 0's after them.
You can't end a stage without a boss fight, and the Nintendo DS makes use of the vertical screen real estate to stick a huge boss up top and your weedy little ship down the bottom. When the boss or his underlings is so stupid as to keep giving you a bunch of laserbeams to throw right back into his face, you'll soon start to enjoy Space Invaders Extreme for what it is - simple, stylish fun.
As the stages go on, your alien foes will mix things up, the stage backgrounds will get groovier to go along with the music, and the bosses will get more challenging as you'd expect.
Losing a life is no big deal, losing them all gives you a retry to go through the stage again, and when it plays as simple as this and looks and sounds like it does, it's hard to not give it another go.
Final Word
I'm not a Space Invader Extreme expert, so I don't know the strategies for getting the absolute best high scores each stage or the ways you should be making use of your limited power-ups, but when you first encounter the visual treat that sits in front of you, who cares?
I couldn't repeat what music I was hearing, nor the sound effects I was mixing into that soundtrack with my shots and successful hits, but I knew it was interactive and entertaining and wasn't what I was expecting to see.
I don't know what I was expecting from Space Invaders Extreme, really. I'm aware of some failed attempts at Space Invader sequels and spinoffs, but this most definitely isn't one of them, even if it doesn't have legs.
As you can tell I was emulating the Nintendo DS release, but I think I might have to look into what the PlayStation Portable was able to offer as well. I'm sure the graphics would be even better, but how does it deal with its boss fights? What else is different, and then what's different between these versions and the Xbox or PC releases later on?
All I know is that for as long as I had the thumb strength to keep moving and shooting, I was more than happy to play Space Invaders Extreme. It has a perfect mix of old and new, and a style that you just don't see all too often. It's Space Invaders and then some, and is a great version of the game to play if the original is just too old and dull for you.
Fun Facts
If you've got a Nintendo DS Paddle Controller lying around, you can get twisting it to control your ship instead of the archaic D-pad input. And now I look up what a Nintendo DS Paddle Controller is...
Space Invaders Extreme, developed by Taito, first released in 2008.
Version played: Nintendo DS, 2008, via emulation.