Space Invaders

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I had heard quite a bit about this title during the development cycle, so I was excited to see my copy show up in the mail.  Space Invaders has been developed by Z-Axis, and published by Activision.

Note:   This review is based on the Sony Playstation version of the game.  Space Invaders has also been published for the PC, and will be available soon for other formats as well.

Here is the opening page from the manual:

It was 1965 when humanity made its first attempts into space.  The goal was both grand and simple: to go beyond the known world into the unknown.

In 1978, the unknown came to us.....

First contact occurred November 22nd, 1978.  There were no little green men armed with cute, bug-eyed faces and funny walks.  Instead, there were attack ships, hordes of them.  The fighting was fierce.  They exhibited unnerving discipline.  Wave after wave of tight-knit squads dropped on us with steady, malevolent intentions.

Initially, it seemed more than likely we would be overrun by the alien arsenal of powerful technology.  If it were not for the capabilities of a then secret, experimental Tank, Earth would have surely fallen.

Our victory was hard won, countless scores of courageous Tank pilots sacrificed their lives to the cause.  Once the celebration died down, life, for the most part, returned to normal.

Based on wreckage recovered from the destroyed invaders, designs were begun on a new defensive unit.  It took billions of dollars and decades to learn to use this new technology.  A new Tank was born complete with hover capability, multi-adaptive hard-points, and an electromagnetic shielding system powered by a nuclear core.  For sentimental reasons, it is still called the Tank, however, this vehicle is far from a conventional tank as a complex organism is from a single-celled being.

More than twenty years later, the aliens have yet to return.  Most people hope and pray they never will.   If they do, we shall be ready.

The game opens with some cool full-motion video.  One of the new Tank units is driving through the old Tank graveyard, where the destroyed Tanks from the 1978 invasion have come to rest.   Suddenly, the alarms go off signaling the detection of an alien force entering the atmosphere.  As the Tank driver turns his unit around, he sees the entire sky is completely filled with invaders.

Space Invaders supports one or two players.

Once the game begins, you must stop wave after wave of the invaders.  Gameplay is just like the original coin-op classic.  The invaders march across and down the screen, and you must destroy them all before they reach the ground.  Occasionally, an alien invader mothership will survey the battle by cruising across the top of the screen.  Killing the mothership will give you some extra bonus points.

However, there have been some subtle, and effective, changes to the game itself.  For example, there are power-ups that drop from the top of the screen when you destroy a mothership.  If you catch a one of the power-ups, you will earn a special weapon or defense mechanism.  Power-ups include shields, a "freeze" device that will prevent the aliens from moving for 5 seconds, dual fire missiles, etc.  You can also earn special weapon power-ups by destroying the aliens themselves.  If you can kill 4 of the same type of alien, in succession, you can earn a special weapon power-up, such as swarm missiles, atomic cloud, etc.  You may only have one weapon power-up at a time, and each weapon only can fire off one shot.

  
"Boss" Invader Ships
Click on images to enlarge

There are a total of 100 levels in the game.  The levels are broken off into groups of 10 waves.  Each group of levels is played on a different planet in our solar system.  The game starts on Pluto, and moves back towards earth.  After you complete 5 waves, a bonus screen pops up where you can earn bonus points by shooting down the alien motherships.  Them you must complete another 5 waves.  Once all 10 waves are complete, you must face the "boss" of that level.  The "boss" is generally one (or several) large ship(s) that requires multiple hits to destroy.  Once the "boss" is dead, you warp off to the next planet.

Now, like I said, there are 100 levels in the game.  I've made it up to level 70 so far.  There are 13 different invader ships, and 10 different "boss" ships.  Each type of invader has a different behavior, and it will require that you use some different tactics depending on what type of ship you are firing on.  Some of the invader ships have some cool capabilities.  One "kamikaze" type of ship tries to collide with your Tank when you attack it.  Another ship will swoop down to you and fire a barrage of lasers.

The graphics for this game are absolutely phenomenal.  The explosions are very realistic-looking.  The alien invaders are cleverly animated.  Your Tank will pulsate on an off-blue color when your shields are up, and your Tank will generate an appropriate explosion when it is blown up.  (Remember, it is atomic powered!)

Sounds are a mixed bag.   There is some techno style music in the background that I really enjoyed.  The music sounds appropriate for the game, yet doesn't overpower you to the point that you want to shut it off.  The actual in-game sounds are appropriate, but not anything to write home about.  One exception is that there is one type of invader that makes a sound that (kind of) sounds like a "shriek" when you kill it.  That is a very cool effect.

Between each level, a screen pops up that previews the behavior of the new invaders that you will be attacking during the next level.  While this screen is up, the program is loading the routines for the next level.  The load time between levels is fairly lengthy, but the game doesn't seem to make any access to the CD during actual gameplay.

One other bonus -- the original Space Invaders game is hidden somewhere on the CD.

OK, so what is wrong with the game?  There are a few things.  First off, Z-Axis/Activision has chosen to ignore the history of the original game.  I wish all software developers out there would take a lesson from Digital Eclipse:  If you are going to publish a classic title, either in its original form or with some updates, PLEASE include some history.   It is great that they have included the original game.  However, I can't imagine that it takes much more effort to include some historical aspects of the original game, like some interviews with the original creators, photos, etc.  Digital Eclipse seems to be the only company that is including this information in their "retro" titles, with the exception of Namco who have included some historical information in their "Museum" collections of arcade hits for the Playstation.

Next, I think I discovered a bug.  If I load a saved game on my Playstation, the display that shows how many Tanks I have left goes blank, and stays blank until I kill a boss.  Once I move on to the next level, the display comes back.  While the display is blank, I am unable to tell how many Tanks I have left.

Third, the "bonus" rounds where you have to kill the motherships could have been done much more creatively.   They just leisurely cruise across the screen, and your Tank can just pick them off one-by-one.  Let me put it to you this way:  If you can't hit all of the motherships during the bonus round, you shouldn't be playing video games at all.   This part of the game is ENTIRELY too easy.  I would have preferred to see something a bit more complex -- such as the bonus rounds in the coin-op classic Galaga.   Make those motherships dance around a bit so they are harder to hit.  The bonus round should be a reward for your skill, and not just an easy way to push up your score.  Plus, the motherships are too big.  They should be smaller.  This would also add to the difficulty of hitting them.

Final thoughts:

All in all, I have really enjoyed this title so far.  Z-Axis/Activision have done a great job of keeping the flavor and feel of the original Space Invaders coin-op, while giving it a modern look.   The new features do enhance the game without sacrificing gameplay.

As for the original Space Invaders that is buried in the CD, you cannot access it until you finish all 100 waves.   Once that happnes, and extra option will appear on the main menu for "classic" mode.  The classic mode is pretty good.  It appears to be the original coin-op based around an emulator.

For more information, visit the Space Invaders
homepage at the Activision web site