Space Invaders Extreme Review – PC

One might wonder what you would have to do to take a 40-year old game and re-release it for PC and charge $20. The answer is pretty much everything that you’ll find inside Space Invaders Extreme, one of the most intensely fun times I’ve had with a retro-rebuilt arcade game since Pac-Man Championship Edition.

Everyone on the planet has at least heard of Space Invaders, one of the very first arcade games that even pre-dates color arcade games.   Yes, there are versions of Space Invaders where the white phosphor B/W screens of yesteryear had colored plastic film over them to give the game its “color”. We’ve come a long way baby, as you can crank Space Invaders Extreme up to 4K resolutions and get blasted by virtually every color in the visible spectrum in one of the most outrageously intense versions of Space Invaders I’ve ever played.

I still remember back in the 80’s, zoning out as I tapped the fire button while lines of aliens marched toward the bottom of my screen to the thump-thump-thump of the tiny speaker and onboard sound chip. The most iconic sound was the whoosh/whistle of your own weapons that sounded like a sub launching a torpedo. Now, we have all sorts of crazy sound effects and heart-stopping EDM music that create a powerful vibe to match the intensity of the insane action taking place on screen.

Despite all the visual and audible upgrades, the core premise of Space Invaders Extreme is really no different than it was 40 years ago. You still move your cannon from side to side shooting advancing columns of aliens and the occasional UFO that glides across the top of the screen. If you’re lucky you can snag a power-up that gives you brief moments of upgraded firepower, multiplying your bullets or creating lasers to cut through columns. The end result is always a non-stop stream of explosive visuals and psychedelic colors that you’d expect to find projected on screens at an underground rave, and speaking of raves, nothing can prepare you for the intense and eclectic mic of pulse-pounding music that accompanies each and every level of this game.

There are 16 challenging stages where aliens mix up their attack patterns and level-ending bosses will change up their tactics to fit with your skills and the game’s difficulty. You also have Free Play where you can pick and practice specific levels or jump into Arcade Mode and start climbing those leaderboards; pretty much the only thing that will motivate you to keep coming back to the game after finishing it, because honestly; you never “finish” an arcade game like this. There are plenty of hidden bonuses and achievements to unlock through continued gameplay.

Space Invaders Extreme is one of the best retro remakes I’ve played recently. It takes everything I loved about the simplistic gameplay of the original and turns it up to eleven with blinding next-gen visuals and perfect tunes to complement the insane carnage taking place on the screen for as long as you play. While there are brief moments of slow, casual shooting of aliens, it doesn’t take long before this game flies off the rails and straight to the top of your must-play list.

  

Author: Mark Smith
I've been an avid gamer since I stumbled upon ZORK running in my local Radio Shack in 1980. Ten years later I was working for Sierra Online. Since then I've owned nearly every game system and most of the games to go with them. Not sure if 40+ years of gaming qualifies me to write reviews, but I do it anyway.

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