Space Invaders Forever is such a weird title to get my head around. When it came across my desk for a review I was excited about the prospect. I love old-school arcade titles from the early days of the medium and Space Invaders being the granddaddy of the Shmup genre surprisingly still holds up. That said, I was wary about just what I might be getting into as the rise of the retro redux has been pretty hit or miss, especially with legacy arcade titles.
I came into this thinking of two possible situations: that this was a modern interpretation of Space Invaders in the line of the fantastic Pac-Man Championship or the new Bubble Bobble 4, or that this would be a collection of every past Space Invaders title ever released to the home, portable, and arcade. I would have been okay with either but my preference would have been for a full collection as we missed out on a number of titles that only hit Japanese arcades and those weird consoles that collectors covet. Heck, the PS4 Blu-ray disk is more than large enough to house every game and then some, including manuals, design docs, trailers, interviews and more.
Well, Space Invaders Forever did the latter but only in the most lazy of fashions. This is a compilation to be sure, but of only three Space Invaders titles, and while some of the coolest, they sure do leave you wanting much more, especially for the asking price. There are no extras, no hidden games (as far as I’m aware), no interviews, trailers, commercials, design docs, or even a little retrospective on the series in general. Just three games, one of which is a mobile phone port, and you all know how I feel about mobile phones ports heading to consoles and PC. I’m not a fan. But let’s run down the three games and what works and doesn’t with regards to each.
The main title on display is Space Invaders Extreme. This is a fantastic title that does a lot to upgrade the base Space Invaders gameplay by adding a lot of fun elements and wraps it all in a new visual, yet classic feeling spectacle. It’s an attack on the senses in the best of ways, almost like a rave in video game form. Space Invaders Extreme was created to celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary and in many ways is the original Space Invaders on steroids. It’s all about huge multiplers, a weapon collection system, boss battles, and challenges that mix things up. It also pulls ideas from other classic games to make for a pretty fantastic game that still holds up today.
Space Invaders Extreme sounds like a perfect game for die-hard score freaks, and in theory is, but unfortunately, this version isn’t the best one available. The title originally was designed and released for portable platforms (PSP & DS) and then later ported to Xbox 360 to take advantage of Xbox Live. This version was visually upgraded for bigger screens and featured online play, thus making it the definitive version of Space Invaders Extreme. Unfortunately, the title that is on Space Invaders Forever is a port of the later Steam PC release. While this version looks fantastic and plays great, it’s lacking any form of online multiplayer. Not a total deal breaker as the game is still solid, but it will become a problem with the next game in the collection.
Space Invaders Gigamax 4SE is the second of the trio and the one most people won’t be familiar with as it was exclusive to Japanese arcades. I was excited to try out a missing game that I’ve never heard of, and for the most part it’s the classic Space Invaders formula, the twist this time being that four-players can tackle the game at once. Clearly designed for a long-screen arcade format, Space Invaders Gigamax 4SE feels like a fantastic party game, or, well, a great co-op arcade experience. Four ships tackle the Invaders as they work their way down the screen. It’s an old format but there is something striking seeing 100-plus Invaders from space descending down the screen towards you.
The action is fast and working together is a must to complete the game. Not only are stages broken up with varying wave patterns of Invaders but the unique boss fights make playing with a group of friends a real blast. Locking two ship together lets you use a powered-up shot while adding other ships creates a mega canon, something essential to dealing with bosses. But I think you can already see the big problem with Space Invaders Gigamax 4SE. Without four-players the game loses its punch and in almost unplayable in single-player. In 4-player is bloddy fantastic, but every time you remove a player you also lose a portion of the fun. Without the team power-up feature you’ll almost always fight the timer and not be able to beat bosses unless you are perfect with every single shot.
And because Space Invaders Forever lacks any online multiplayer you’ll be hard pressed to ever fire up the game when chilling at home, even with another player around. This is a game that demands to be played with four-players to get the full enjoyment out of, much like an arcade game like X-Men. Sure, you can play solo or with another friend, but it’s filling out that six-man roster is when the game gets truly fun. Much is the same with Space Invaders Gigamax 4SE. If you have four friends you’ll love the experience, especially with the amazing tunes done for the game by the Taito house band. But without a full crew and a lack of online multiplayer, chances are you’ll play this one the least, is ever outside a curiosity play, something not good when your collection is only three games deep.
Thankfully, the last title, Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders, is surprisingly great and the game you’ll probably invest the most time in. This crossover game was originally released on mobile phones back in 2016 and flew mostly under the radar for most gamers because of this. Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders flips the script and plays mostly like Arkanoid instead of Space Invaders. You control your little pill ship and work to eliminate the Invaders by reflecting their bullets back at them. You’ll have to contend with the traditional Arkanoid blocks to break as well as enemy fire to reflect. Power-ups along the way will make things easier and interesting and in general, this is a pretty fantastic experience that I got sucked into.
The graphics are vibrant and colorful and and having to play stages under strict time limits ups the tension. Add in a number of skills and super moves and you have a great mobile game, even though those nasty mobile game “features” can still be seen. Thankfully, all the wait-to-play refreshes are gone and you won’t be using an online store to use real money to buy coins for items. This is a huge plus as upgrades are fun to collect, especially the various Taito characters that you can unlock to become support characters. Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders is clearly the stand-out titles in this collection and there is a lot of gameplay to keep you invested.
What holds it back is that, well, it’s a mobile game and the limitations really show on a huge widescreen 4K television. You get a sliver of a screen to actually play on and while Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders is the only game I know of that maps your movement to the PS4 controllers trackpad, it feels a bit too frigidity in my opinion. It takes some time to get used to, and lifiting your finger off the pad will awkwardly recenter everything. I much rather would have liked to use the joysticks to play the game but I understand the compromise. Hell, it’s just nice to use the PS4 controllers track-pad as most people forget it’s event there.
At the end of the day Space Invaders Forever feels pretty cheap and stingy. Of the three game on the pack the most interesting one is limited by not having any online play and the game with the most meat on the bone is a mobile phone game from 2016. I simply can’t recommend a game collection that lacks so many titles that fans would have loved to see. This should have been a love letter to the franchise, but instead it’s a nice novelty at best, and a game that will mostly be remembered to having a mobile phone game port of a title that probably nickel-and-dimed consumers on iOS and Android. If you really want this one I’d say skip the PS4 release and go with the Nintendo Switch as you can at least play it on the go for some quick bursts of fun.
Pros:
+ Great Tunes
+ Unreleased Title Featured
+ Three Solid Games
Cons:
– Only Three Games
– Lack of Online Hurts Games
– Lack of Any Extras
Final Score
*A review copy was provided by the publisher*
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