Review: Space Invaders (GBA)

The Gameboy Advance is fast becoming the console of choice for updating old retro titles. Space Invaders is a timeless classic and along with Pac Man really helped to kick-start the gaming revolution. Simple in execution but impossibly addictive, an update seemed to be the perfect answer for all your portable needs and courtesy of Activision and Torus Games, blasting aliens whilst sitting on the loo can now be enjoyed by everyone.

There cannot be many gamers out there who are not aware of Space Invaders heritage, however just incase you are wet behind the ears the following should prove handy reading. You take control of a small tank, above you rows of aliens (looking like they've been constructed from Lego blocks) slowly descend towards you until they reach the ground and hey, invade. The only thing between you and your opponents are 4 bases that can absorb both yours and the alien's firepower (although eventually these will disappear). Successfully destroy the wave of enemies above you and a new faster identical wave appears, and so on, and so on.

If the above makes you dread switching on your Advance, do not worry as Torus has taken the original concept, thrown it into a cement-mixer, added bosses and power-ups and created a right playable little number. Keeping the theme of alien assault you now have to battle your way through 99 stages until you encounter your final nemesis. As opposed to the black and white sprites you met back in 1978, we now have a host of multi-colored critters to blast into the middle of next week. Destroy 4 aliens of the same colour and you will have access to that race's power-up, which you can then use against them to devastating effect. Weapons range from projectile shots that ricochet around the screen taking out all and sundry, to missiles that fly directly upwards, obliterating everything in their path. Each new assault comes with even more fiendishly designed waves and by the 10th level you'll be praying for a rest. You don't get one however as the first of many bosses appear, they all look very impressive and take a fair amount of firepower before succumbing to your lasers and allowing you access to the next planet.

Visually for such a small screen the Advance really delivers the goods, with easy to see aliens which are all very well animated as they march ever onwards towards you. Detail on everything is very good with the many explosions being particularly dynamic. Even when there 20 plus enemies to mow down, the screen never becomes cluttered and as a result the gameplay always remains fast and frantic. As previously mentioned many of the bosses are quite impressive affairs with various parts of their bodies spinning and rotating as they seek to take one of your 5 lives. Sound is very good with some absolutely banging, foot tapping tunes, which will have you keeping beat as you blow things up. There are even a few rave numbers to listen to and the amount of aural delight the Advance manages to muster out of its tiny speaker is very, very impressive indeed.

Spot effects for the most part are your expected beeps and explosions and although effective are no where near on par with the great music. If you are not happy playing the game solo you can grab a friend and an extra cart and take part in either co-operative or competitive action, which as with Tetris before it, offers long hours of enjoyment.

The inclusion of the original 1978 Space Invaders is the final ring around a very decent planet and the game plays as good today as it did then. This brings us to the one missing feature that cripples this potentially amazing little blast from the pastÂ… No high score table. Yep, you heard right, by some massive oversight Torus has forgotten the one thing that made the original such an engaging experience to play. The anticipation of going back to cream a previous high score is huge and it is a complete travesty to find that it has not been employed for this remake. This is even more annoying when you realize that the developers have included a battery back-up feature to save your progression in the updated version.

Ultimately Space Invaders is a first rate blaster for the Gameboy Advance, it keeps everything simple, has brilliant sound and can be played continuously without getting staid. The glaring omission of a high score table does cost the game dearly, fortunately however, you'll be too busy trying to take out the final boss to notice.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Darran Jones