Space Invaders

"One of the first games ever created, now at Burger King!"

During my visit to Blackpool in the summer of 2002, I was enjoying a stroll down the Pleasure Beach theme park when I became peckish. I had my food and went upstairs for something, I don't know why, well I do actually but this is a review, not an auto-biography. I saw a machine which had several games playable, these were Space Invaders, Frogger, Centerpied and Kong. Kong sounded the best option, but it was not working, I chose Space Invaders (then Frogger) and I did not regret it.

The game maybe a few decades older then myself, but I enjoyed this masterpiece. The control is simple, using a joystick, you controlled a spaceship, pressing the button on the joypad fires a bullet. The gameplay sounds very simple and boring, but in fact is quite fun. Games then days were about simple ideas like saving the planet from aliens, unlike the save the princess cliché's and time paradox's of today.

The aim of the game is to shoot down an army of aliens which have no animation at all exept for moving and firing bullets (which in those days proved to be better then sliced bread), You had to battle it out, shooting one bullet at a time, no rapid fire. To shield yourself from incoming bullets, you have a small number of green blocks which stop bullets in their tracks, but vanish without a trace after a couple of bullets have hit it, even your own bullets damage it.

The aliens you are meant to battle against moved in a left to right formation. Space Invaders starts off quite easy, although it is really easy to die, one bullet and you lose one of your few lives. Once you have completed the first level, the fun and frustration of Space Invaders begin, the game becomes much, much harder, you are very lucky, very lucky indeed to complete the second level, as well as the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and future levels.

Now for one of the first games to be created, I must say tht Space Invaders does not have bad graphics. You are meant to see clearly what everything is in games, Space Invaders just does that, the black background instantly tells you that you are in space, the white spider creatures tell you their aliens with a bit of guessing from the game's title and you can easily tell that the not so detailed spaceship is indeed a spaceship.

The biggest letdown in the game has to be the sound and music. I was not expecting an orchestra or anything, but I just didn't like the blips of sound the machine made when you fired a bullet, got hit or something.

If you ever encounter this game in an arcade, GAME ON, resturant or anything like that, I recommend trying it, it is one of the games which is the reason why you are playing Final Fantasy, Tekken, Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto and Gradius today.

Good/The Truth is out there

- Great fun
- Proves old games are still great
- VERY HARD!

Bad/Not much cop

- Very bad sound and music

Summary:

Graphics - 9/10 for its time but by today's standards, 2/10.
Sound - 2/10
Music - 1/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 8/10
Challenge - 9/10
Enjoyment - 9/10
Lifespan - 8/10
Overall - 8/10 (I was meant to give it a seven but deserves an eight an eight at least. let down by the sound)

Alternatives: What more can you have? But if you are difficult, Galaga by Namco is a good choice. Followed by other good classics.

Word of advice: Don't get too addicted to this game, Groundskeeper Willy broke his thumb in the Simpsons, and didn't relise it was a videogame until Chief Wiggum told him. And if you are addicted, the arcade owners could even give you the machine, just like the creator of Pokémon.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/02, Updated 08/18/02