Space Invaders
Editorial Review
Space Invaders–just the name is enough to make your thumb twitch. Few sports meeting evoke as many special memories as this retro arcade title. Remember vaporizing thousands of enemy ships while ignoring your mother’s direct instructions to go to bed? Who can sleep when you’ve got a dozen extra lives built up and you are about to bust your all-time high score? Now you can experience this classic retro game on the Game Boy or Game Boy Affect.
Like most arcade classics, Space Invaders’s greatness lies in its simplicity. You go a ship at the bottom of the screen to the right and left, shooting at stacks of enemy ships that also go to the right and left, bombarding both you and the three shields you can duck behind. The ships at a snail’s pace descend and if one reaches the level you’re on, you lose a life. The more ships you ruin, the quicker the remaining ships go, making the last few ships in any swarm very hard to hit. As the levels progress, you’ll face massive boss ships and may even unlock the hidden original arcade version of the game. New elements were added to the elemental gameplay, including potential-ups and levels that play out on slippery ice, but the basic fun is still intact. –T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
- Classic gameplay with some new twists
- Looks impressive on the Game Boy Affect
Cons:
- Gameplay may be too repetitious for advanced gamers
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I like the original, and this is a fun version updated with new graphics and new worlds and so forth. BUT — there is no high score table, every time you lose you have to go back to the opening credits which takes FOREVER — hopefully future iterations will increase on those basics that GBA aficionados have come to expect.
Rating: 4 / 5
I thought that this game was very excellent. You get some really cool special weapons and it isn’t too simple. There are hundereds of levels, so it isn’t a game where you just beat it in a day. This is a game I could reccomend too nearly anyone. The graphics are pretty excellent though not the best that I’ve seen.
Rating: 5 / 5
If you’re 25 or grown-up, chances are you played the original Space Invaders in the arcade so many years ago. The Gameboy Affect version provides the same classic gameplay with just enough of an update to make it feel fresh. Aliens still march by the side of in the same unwavering formation, getting quicker and quicker until you shoot the last one in the wave (punctuated this time by boss battles every few levels), only now you have oodles of potential-ups to help you in your fight – some of which are really pretty cool (the lightning bolt shot is my favorite – electrocute eight aliens at once!). There are many different types of aliens as well, with attacks that become more and more hard to defend against as you get to the later levels. The graphics are impressive for the Gameboy Affect; no, they’re not polygonal like the new PSX version of the game, but they are very detailed and colorful sprites that in many ways look more faithful to the original. In a lot of ways this game reminds me of the Taito-produced Super Space Invaders ‘91, minus the rotating formations (probably too CPU-intensive for the small Gameboy). And that’s no small compliment – I still consider SSI ‘91 one of the best shooters of all time.
If you never played or never liked the original Space Invaders, the new version might feel a small repetitive. But if you are a fan of the original or of any of the clones or updates that came later, you will go gonzo over Space Invaders for the Gameboy Affect.
Rating: 4 / 5