Space Invaders Get Even(WiiWare)

[357 Lobster]

This is actually a tough game review. There's alot to really like, but there's a flaw or 3 that could be a deal breaker. The idea is that the Invaders have come back to Eart to destroy the last "core cannons" from the original. Basic and totally fine. Let's start with the graphics. It's a little simplistic looking, which is not a bad thing at all. It's very smooth with little to no blur or jagged edges. There's not alot of amazing textures or lighting or anything even that interesting to look at. It has a great color pallette though. It's bright and vivd and very Nintendo-ey so it really helps set it apart. The sound is very good overall. The music is a mix between video game techno with spots of 50's style martian wooo---eeee---woooo. Pretty cool. The explosions sound great and there's some voice overs too. Some of the voice overs are pretty campy and fun like "WHAT...DO THEY WANT....WITH MY COOOWWWSSSS!" and "Our weapons are ineffective against 2D enemies!" The game feels much like the UFO levels from Destroy All Humans ie flying around abducting cows and generally causing massive destruction, mixed with some elements of Pikmin 2. For example, you control the UFO and you've got a swarm of Space Invaders around the ship. Like Pikmin, you ship doesn't actually fire. You actually send your Invaders at enemies again, like in Pikmin. You have several different types of attacks like a machine gun type where the Invaders ram enemies for fast but limited damage, while the bombs are slow but deal massive damage. Once more, like Pikmin, to attack it takes Invaders. You get hit, you lose Invaders. How do you get more Invaders? Vigorously shaking the remote AND nunchuck at the same time. This sucks. You move with the chuck's analogue stick and aim with the pointer, so when your fighting a boss or a large group of tanks that are firing constantly, you need to bob and weave around the fire while shaking everything so you can fight back, but you can't fight back anyway. Maybe I suck at games, but I can't aim a pointer while shaking the remote. Oh, and did I mention the time limit? You start with 180 seconds generally, and if you get hit, you lose Invaders AND time. The bigger the bullet that hits you, the more time you lose. Time can be regained by blowing up buildings, tanks, etc, but you don't get much. 1 second for a building, 5 for a tank and so on. You can also score 15 seconds for abducting a cow. These issues can be worked around, just not terribly easily. Practice, practice, practice. Now on to the real issue. The game cost 500 points. Not bad right? Thing is those 500 points only get you 1 area with 3 levels. Want more? There's 3 Mission Packs for 500 points each, but the difference is they add a couple areas with 3 missions each and a different type of UFO. So, if you want the whole game, you gotta spend 2000 points and have a ton of space on your Wii or an SD card. It's not the space I take issue with, it's the price. I can't look at it as a 5 dollar demo either. You can play the same amount of Pokemon Rumble or World of Goo for free, so charging 5 bucks for a "demo" is unacceptable. Enough ranting about the evils of DLC. In the end, Space Invaders Get Even is a fun and addictive if slightly flawed and deceptively expensive game. Check it out if you liked Destroy All Humans and don't mind spending 5 to 10 bucks more than you normally would for a WiiWare game. Personally, I give the game a 7/10. If 20 bucks for a short but fun game, go with the 7/10. Otherwise, it's a 5/10 based mostly on the fact that it should've 1000 points for the whole game. Not 2000.