Space Invaders Extreme Is Way Better Than The Newest First-Person Shooter

This, dear readers, is my review of Battlefield: Bad Company, a video game published by Electronic Arts for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Battlefield: Bad Company is a first-person shooter—which means that in this game, you shoot, and the shooting is performed from a first-person perspective.

A screenshot from the PSP version

Bad Company has destructible cover. But Space Invaders Extreme has nostalgic destructible cover.

Details

Space Invaders Extreme Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo DS, Sony PSP
Price: $19.99
ESRB Rating: E (for Everyone)
Score: 8 (out of 10)

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• Sony PlayStation3
• Microsoft Xbox 360
• Video Games

Okay, let’s see: Tools … Word count … 51 words?! That’s it?

Hmm. What else to say about Bad Company? Well, the back of the package brags that the game “brings the battlefield to life with spectacular visual effects.” That sounds pretty awesome. And, I admit, the screenshots on the box do indeed look pretty sweet.

“Word Count” … 96? Damn!

Aw, screw it. I admit: I didn’t play through Bad Company. I meant to, really. I sat down with it a couple of times, trying my best to muster the will to write yet another review of yet another first-person shooter. The game’s big idea, destructible cover, is amusing, at least for a while. And it plays decently, with a sense of humor and a reasonable online mode. It’s not a bad game. It just couldn’t woo me away from the game I was seeing behind its back: Space Invaders Extreme.

This isn’t just a re-release of the 30-year-old classic. Space Invaders Extreme is a full-blown sequel that nicely pairs the fundamentals of the original with the right touch of modern innovation and flair. And while it never eclipses Pac-Man Championship Edition—the new standard in brilliant remakes of classic games—Space Invaders Extreme sits comfortably in the No. 2 slot, reminding gamers that low-fi, simple gameplay mechanics still sometimes trump modern glitz.

The biggest difference between SIX and its bellbottomed, mutton-chopped ancestor is the removal of the original’s bunkers. Now, the only defensive options available to players are evasion or—if you’re a cool customer—deflecting incoming fire with your own shots. Otherwise, though, it’s just like the Space Invaders that hit the corner arcades in 1978: as rows of invaders march toward Earth, you hold them off with your lone little cannon.

Taito wisely doesn’t monkey with this winning formula. All the flourishes and finessing are added around and in between the concept’s empty spaces, like little illustrative doodles in the margins of a sacred text.

But while you can approach the game as you would the original—firing on the biggest threats first and systematically working your way through the fleet—SIX rewards players who are a little more strategic. For example: shoot down four blue enemies in a row, and the last drops a laser cannon that, for a few gleeful seconds, will evaporate any alien in its path—except the “reflect” types, who bounce it right back at you. With those pesky bastards, you’re better off shooting down four red in a row for bombs. Although those have disadvantages, too, so maybe you should grab a shield. But then again, with a shield – well, you get the idea.

SIX fleshes out the rest of the game with all the standard features modern gamers look for, plus a few new ones. Bonus rounds, score modifiers, chain combos, even boss battles make appearances. But the two-player versus mode is the real treat. Playing more like a puzzle game than a pure shooter, destroyed enemies make up a fleet you launch against Player 2 by hitting “send”—i.e., shooting down one of the passing, high-altitude UFOs from the original.

Even the look and sound of the game fits Taito’s design philosophy: enemies appear in their original pixilated glory against kaleidoscopic backgrounds, marching to the tune of something between disco and trance music.

So, yeah: I’m quite sorry, Bad Company. You’re fine, really. I know you’ll make some other gamer very happy. But I’ve decided to go back to my first love.