You could easily play through the game and not even realize how to access these scoring opportunities. The manual does a fine job of explaining them, but either way, they do take away from the game more than they add. It’s easy to find a rhythm to slaughtering the aliens, and to suddenly have the game stop to head into a bonus is jarring. The wild, trippy backgrounds aren’t helpful either, though they never infringe on the gameplay.
Multi-player is limited to local AD HOC only, which is a shame. The DS port offers full Nintendo WiFi support. PSP owners are jilted. The competition mode is fun regardless, letting you send Invaders over to your opponent as you shoot them down. Better yet, there are no cut-away scoring opportunities. It’s pure Space Invaders.
Traditionalists may scoff at some of the changes, but at its heart, this is still Space Invaders. Unlike something like Galage Legions on the Xbox Live Arcade, this is a faster paced, more intense game than it originally was for a modern audience. While the score challenges are out of place (and the original game isn’t included as a bonus), this is still a fine ancient-school blast-a-thon.
Space Invaders Extreme is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB for absolutely nothing apparently even though millions of alien babies will now be parent-less. This game can also be found on: DS.
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