Space Invaders Extreme 2

Space Invaders Extreme 2 is a great arcade shooter in portable form that's perfect for those times when you don't have a lot of time to spare but want to play something.
 

The overall mechanics of Space Invaders hasn't been tampered with: a line of invaders slowly descends toward your ship as you do your best to blast them before

they get too close.  Not having played the first Space Invaders Extreme, I'm not sure what's new over the first instalment but in this one, to aid in the obliteration of the aliens, there are plenty of temporary upgrades to grab including a horizontal shield and a solid beam that can be swept from side to side. And the music syncs to the beats of your shots so it's constantly

changing and more than a few times I found myself shooting to keep a catchy rhythm rather than blasting to clear the enemy line.
 

This techno dance party theme extends to the swirling, flashing backgrounds.  If they were on a larger screen, I'm betting they'd make me sick to my stomach or at the very least dilate my pupils and shock me into a catatonic state. As it is, unless you're able to "train" yourself to somehow stop seeing that stuff, you'll do exactly what I was doing.  I often missed "Fever Time" opportunities and UFO bonuses simply because my eyes were too distracted.  Scoring the Bingo Fevers wasn't much better.  Even with practice and what I thought was a respectable score, I would typically finish stages with a D-rating.

Also along the distracted vision line, the top screen also comes into play.  During boss fights this is a far, far easier to deal with since there isn't the same in-motion backgrounds, but during regular stages when there are alien ships to blast up top, switching your gaze from bottom to top and back can completely throw off your concentration.  If you don't care too much about scoring a huge hi-score (that would be me) then it's not much of a problem.

I really like the fact I can pop open Space Invaders Extreme 2. play for ten minutes and feel like I've had a satisfying game experience. Hi-score be damned!

- Aaron Simmer

(November 13, 2009)