Taito celebrates Space Invaders' 30th anniversary with Space Invaders Extreme for the Nintendo DS. It took a fresh, vibrant design and meshed it with the classic shoot-em-up gameplay with enjoyable results, making it an ideal pick-up, especially for $20.

Playing Space Invaders Extreme is simple. There are invading aliens attacking Earth in waves and it's up to your trusty space cannon to blast them out of existence. However, rather than charging towards the Earth in aligned rows (as in previous games), they come at you in multiple formations and colors.

Taito introduces some new strategies that cleverly work in this game. First off, by shooting multiple similarly colored aliens in a row, you earn access to a temporary power-up that helps you push back the invading forces. It could be a limited shield that guards your cannon from incoming fire or something more effective, such as a shotgun-esque laser that destroys everything surrounding your target. The second involves the mystery ships, which float by on occasion at the top and bottom of the screen. By shooting select models of these ships, you enter bonus rounds where you have to eliminate so many aliens in a time frame. There are a number of these minigames available, extending the game's replay value well outside its limited five-level set-up.

Space Invaders Extreme's gameplay works really well. Rather than use touch-screen controls, you use the d-pad for movement and press the A button to fire shots. For those of you who imported that cool DS paddle attachment from Japan (which came packaged with Arkanoid DS), Square Enix included support for it and it works wonderfully. Without it, though, the game is still playable.

Thirty years later and they're still going strong. Click to see more images from the game...

With presentation, Taito tried to perform some neat tricks to give the game a current-gen zeal. The backgrounds feature trippy colors and "hip" designs to provide the aliens with a contemporary look, but they get distracting every once in a while. The retro look of the creatures is nice, particularly the bigger ones that wave their arms up and down as they charge towards your ship. Boss battles are particularly neat, taking up both screens and easily indicating where their weak spots are with glowing boxes. The in-game music consists of acceptable dance beats, with Space Invader sound effects playing alongside them in the background.

Along with the strategy provided in the single-player mode and the ability to practice any stage you clear in Stage Mode, Space Invaders Extreme also features plentiful multiplayer support. You can try out Ranking Mode and then upload your score to an online leaderboard through the Wi-Fi Connection, seeing how you fare against other Earth saviors. If you prefer more local competition, Extreme also features a two-player mode through cartridge download. The Versus mode is incredibly fun, as you compete to blast all the aliens you can while avoiding incoming fire from your buddy. Being able to thrust invaders back and forth across each other's screens is wild stuff. We only wish Taito included some kind of retro mode featuring the original Invaders game.

Seriously, though, what do you want for $20? It's more than worth the price, even if you're not familiar with the series. It's been around for thirty years for a reason, and there's no better time to discover it than with Space Invaders Extreme.

Related Links

Space Invaders Extreme Game Guide

Square Enix

Our Final ScoreGood

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