Extreme Nostalgia Invasion

Working for a superhuge multi-national conglomeration that makes and sells a seemingly infinite variety of goods and services, including gaming systems, has it's advantages. For example, a free PSP system, and free UMD games from time to time...HOTCHA!

So, yeah, recently, I got my dirty mitts on this game, Space Invaders Extreme, and as someone who literally came of age at video arcades (The Electric Connection!), I was definitely excited to give this game a whirl...I dropped many a quarters into the original Space Invaders arcade game, and I could hang with just about every other dude in the Electric Connection, except for those two or three that made Space Invaders their game...

If I had a game, and I'm not sure if I did, because I jumped around from machine to machine, including extreme amounts of time at the Foosball table, I'd hafta say my game was Galaga...

Now, Galaga was just a more colorful and sophisticated version of Space Invaders, and when you get right down to it, this new 30th Anniversary Edition of the original Space Invaders looks and plays more like a high-tech version of Galaga than it's actual namesake...

Which isn't a bad thing, really...Space Invaders Extreme is brash and colorful and loud and fast and absolutely 100% non-stop, which means ya gotta hit pause with some regularity in order to give yr eyeballs some rest...

Which isn't to say this game doesn't translate to the relative small PSP screen, because it actually looks phenomenal, and plays well...No, believe me, it's the pace and and the colors the graphics that will fuck you up...

If you enlarge this pic, it's about actual-size...Now imagine solid Techno Music blazing away, while invaders and UFOs of all shapes and sizes and colors attack and attack and attack, unrelentingly...Endlessly...

Anyways, if you happen to have a PSP, or Nintendo DS, this modern remake of a classic and simple gaming concept (move Left and Right + Fire) is a fun and frantic diversion, and if yr as old as me, there's that added enforced nostalgia...Even a little goes a long way...

Hotcha! Hank