Mini Review – Space Invaders: Infinity Gene

Shooter

Derek’s Don’t Run.

Rich

Good things about Space Invaders: Infinity Gene.

I hate pretty much all the Space Invaders games but this one is fast, exciting and ramps up the firepower.  The crisp, neo-retro graphics avoid falling into the ‘fucking your eyes with a lava lamp’ trap and the game adds longevity with bonus, campaign and music modes and game progress unlocks new weapons, music and levels.

It may be ugly but at least it's not a Jeff Minter retina-melting mess.

There is also a sweet risk vs. reward mechanic that involves you getting close to the invaders – an area with a tiny margin of error where their firepower cannot hurt you – for big points, and points matter thanks to a selection of leaderboards and a handy live marker that tells you where your current game scores on those leaderboards.  On first impressions this game is excellent.

Where it all goes horribly wrong.

During the third set of stages, the game resorts to some cheap tricks which turns this from being an enjoyable shooter into an Ikaruga style memory test.  By the fourth stage they run out of ideas and start recycling bosses as well.  By the fifth stage it becomes Galaga: Legions-esque in terms of bastard levels of difficulty.

The leaderboards are all topped by people who have ignored the risk element of the game and picked the ‘Field’ weapon.  A gun which combos enemies for huge points with little input required from the player.  In fact the ten weapons in this game are appallingly balanced.  This kills the leaderboards entirely.  Also at least six of the ten weapons are useless.

The graphics take the retro thing too far and are, for the most part, ugly.  Add to that that they are monochrome and suddenly distinguishing an enemy bullet from harmless scenery is at times impossible.  The bonus modes are pretty much just minor variations on the normal game and the Music mode just uses your tunes to generate enemies but gives no kind of audiovisual feedback, unlike Rez for example.

Enough of the game is good for it to give you 800M$P’s worth of fun.  But stupid design choices mean Infinity Gene will be dead to most purchasers with a week or two.  Such a shame as it’s really just one daft cunt away from being amazing.

5/10