The Invasion Is Somewhat Extreme
Space Invaders Extreme takes the classic arcade game and gives new shinny graphics, smooth animations, boss fights and some cool new weapon upgrades.
If you played the original game you will recognize your enemies instantly (even the flying saucers are back). Although they are similar looking, the aliens now come in many colors and shooting four of the same one in a roll you give you a power-up that corresponds to their color. You will also notice the absence of the defense bunkers, but you will not lament it. That is one of the many changes made by Square-Enix to speed up the pace of the game.
Speed is the big change in this game, enemies are faster, flying saucers are abundant and fly by many times in any given level, you are faster and things change... You guessed it: fast!
There are now little bonus mini-games that are activated instantantly by shooting a certain type of flying saucer, most of them have you shoot an X number of enemies in a certain amount of time. Completing those mini-games gives you a full fever-meter that depletes in a few seconds. During that time you are given powered-up versions of different types of weapons in the game.
Another bonus mini-game is the roulette, where a wheel of multi-colored enemies spins and depending on which color is the one you hit you get a corresponding special power-up such as a ghost ship, temporary invulnerability and other types of special habilities.
Levels in Space Invaders Extreme are much longer than in the original game, you will shoot down ten or more waves of spaceships in each one, which doesn't get as repetitive and boring as it could because you have the chance of initiating mini-games many times in each level.
The boss fights at the end of each level are creative, but most of them do not last long and the ones that do are just boring or worst: downright frustrating due to the difficulty.
There isn't much to say about the music in the game, it is best discribed as repetitive techno (is that redundant?)
There is also a multiplayer option in both of the versions and it will let you cooperate with a friend or compete to see who gets the biggest score. Both modes are solid fun, but for a game that is best in small chunks of time the hassle of setting up a wifi match may not be worth the play time you'll get out of it.
The differences between the two versions are all on the graphics side and won't affect your experience much, but the PSPs larger screen and fancier animations do make the experience easier on the eyes.
In the end fans of shooters like the original Space Invaders, Galaxian and Galaga will probably like this game, as gamers that are more acostumed with more modern shooters like Ikaruga and Trigger Heart Excelica may find it a bit repetitive and not as dynamic in pace.
