In 1978, the world was in danger, and only one laser cannon, shileded by bunkers, could save us all from an invasion of blocky bleepy aliens… This is of course the story of Space Invaders. A story that has been remade and retold countless times over the years, introducing, sightly less blocky looking aliens, and adding more bleeps to their vocabulary, but now, after thirty long years, the next chapter of the story unfolds as Space Invaders gets a true sequel. This game is extreme… Extremely Fun!
Space Invaders Extreme looks at the slow repetitive gameplay of the original, and kicks it into a fast paced frenzy of psychedelic colours, rapid fire, alien smashing beats, combos, double combos, powerups and pixel demons from another planet.
At it’s core, Space Invaders Extreme still holds true to the originals move left, move right and fire at a seemingly infinate number of waves of Invaders, but kicks it up several gears. Gone is the slow moving aliens and even slower firepower in place for quickly scrolling formations which can be hit within the same half second of firing. Formations now take ten to thirty seconds to demolish rather than five to fifteen minutes. Once one groups gone, a completely new formation (no more identical blocks) appears to crry on their onslaught. Speaking of everything being the same, this time the aliens bring with them some interesting powers, including bomb drones (which blow up everything around them when hit) shield barers (hold shields), giant laser carrying demons (you get the idea) and many more. Colour also plays a big part in your enemies as well. Space Invaders Extreme has a brilliant combo system in place, where hitting four of the same colour in a row drops a powerup, ranging from bomb cannons (red) to multiple fire (green) and the laser cannon (blue). Chaining two of these combo’s together lets you try your hand at a bonus stage, where your given a set time limit to clear a goal and unlock fever mode. Fever mode lets you take control of an even more powered up weapon for an even longer time, giving you the change to cause some massive damage as well as rack up a phenomenal score.
After you’ve taken down enough of these rapid fire formations it’s time to meet one of space Invaders eleven bosses. These giant pixelated nasties take up a good portion of a screen and offer a great challenge and a lot of fun.
While gameplay is the most important aspect of the game, Space Invaders does an excelent job of wraping it up in some stunning visuals and sounds. The game offers a beautiful changing belnd of colours, while the retro looking invaders wiggle around in front managing to keep their retro look while feeling right at home in this new-age invasion. The soundtracks filled with funky beats, but what realy sets it apart is your interactivity with it. Your bullet spray and the crushing sound of the aliens defeaat are made up of different beats, giving your defending a melodic tone, complimenting the soundtrack prefectly.
Overall, Space Invaders Extreme takes the classic gameplay of one of the grandfathers of gaming and gives it a much needed rennvation, setting its place in modern gaming. It’s fast paced fun is prefect for quick blasts, while a deep combo sytem alows a longer session to make the most out of their time. While an endless mode would have been a nice addition, the replayability of the levels makes up for it’s absence. It’s also a shame to see that there will be no paddle controller (just like the arcade days) included with the western versions, but thankfully, a Japanese paddle will work with any copy of the game. If your looing for a game to keep you playing over and over again then look no further.
The Flipside:
- Fast Paced Fun
- Combo system opens up many opportunities.
- Very repayable
The Flopside:
- Still the same game at it’s core
- No paddle controller with EU or US versions (although a JP paddle will work)
- No endless mode
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emphasizes how insane the game truly is apparently). However, just calling it a physics engine wouldn’t be doing the game just. It’s a bloody marvelous physics engine! The physics in the game are spot on, whether its blox slowly teetering on the edge before plummeting to their end, or blox being blown to pieces and flung to the furthest reaches of the cubeiverse, or a tower swaying in the wind looking as if its about to fall, or a block (whats the singular of blox?) edging down between a small gap only to grind to a slow hold as friction holds it in place. Interactivity is added with the ability to hurl balls at the towers, grab blocks and move them around, shoot , squirt and smash with a variety of tools, each offering very different ways to play. It’s all brilliant and feels natural (ok maybe not the rectangular sheep) and has been used creatively to build a great game upon its roots.
I’ve only played an hour or so of multiplayer, but from what i’ve played, Boom Blox could easily be the next big party game for the Wii, offering 12 co-op modes and 11 competative modes. Like the main games, theres alot of variation offering something for everyone, wether it be castle siege, reverse-jenga, normal jenga, block collection, or a in can alley. About half of these modes only need 1 wiimote too, so you can have great fun without the expense. All the modes i’ve currently played have been great fun and i’ll definitely be inviting friends over to play.
The aim of this intergalactic solar system building puzzle game is to travel through each of the games 30 galaxies, increasing your size until you are large enough to pull the galaxies yellow star into orbit around you. However, what makes this game challenging is that you have no direct control over your own star. Instead you must rely on the gravitational pull of nearby planets to guide you. Your star is armed with two powers, one which pulls you into the nearest planets gravitational pull, while the other pushes you away. Using these powers takes a little getting used to but soon enough you’ll be pushing and pulling to catapult yourself towards your targets. By floating over blue stars you can grow in size, allowing you to pull smaller stars into your orbit, becoming satellites. Once your large enough you can float past the yellow star, pull it into your orbit and complete the level. I know it shounds odd, but once you play it, everything clicks into place.
While one run through 30 levels of an addictive game is enough to warrant £7 from me, they’ve mastered replayability too. Every level has a special moon you need to make a satellite. Collecting all of these can be quite tricky and adds a just one more go factor, especially with prizes for collecting them all. Your also scored at the end of each level so enthusiasts can try and grab themselves a few hundred points extra per play. To be honest though, neither of these are needed for replayability. I could happily spend hours floating though a level collecting satellites and orbiting round planets with no incentive needed at all. It’s this care free replayability factor that makes Orbital a modern classic, combining simple gameplay with challenging level design and a relaxing atmosphere. I urge you to find a copy and try it for yourself as you will not be disappointed. The game easily makes it into my top 5 games of all time, and even contends the number 1 spot of Donkey Kong.
What really sets The World Ends With You apart from other games is its unique battle system. Battles take place simultaneously in two dimensions (one on each screen) where each character faces the same enemies in their own special ways. On the bottom screen you control Neku using different combination of pins to attack your enemies. These pin attacks work very well, with tap used for firing attacks, slashes for slashing attacks and dragging scenery around to use it as a battering attack. Theres are hundreds of different pin attacks, allowing you to find the perfect combination for your own fighting style.
While this may sound simple, the real game comes into light when you start chaining combos together. You can use pieces trapped withing triangles to make more triangles, which pop once the parent triangle is destroyed. This allows you to destroy a large number of pieces quickly and prevent waste pieces from coagulating. However, this needs to be done quickly to avoid the initial triangles coagulating and blocking off your paths. I know it sounds strange but it works brilliantly, as you try and balance combo sizes with time.
