E3 2010 Wrap Up — Space Invaders Infinity Gene
When I went to the Square-Enix booth, I expected to be bombarded with JRPG after JRPG. Unfortunately, I was disappointed because there really weren’t a whole lot of JRPGs that they were showcasing. However, they made this all up to me by showcasing the console version of one of my favorite iPhone games, Space Invaders Infinity Gene.
Do you guys remember Space Invaders Extreme for the Nintendo DS. That game made me fall in love with Space Invaders all over again. Well Space Invaders Infinity Gene is like Space Invaders Extreme on crystal meth, and for a long time I was hoping it would make the journey over to consoles. Well, honestly I was hoping for handhelds, but downloadable titles are just as good.
For those of you who don’t know, Space Invaders Infinity Gene takes you on a trip through evolution Space Invaders-style. You start by playing the old Atari space invaders, however, as you kill enemies you level up your ship, enemies, and even environments. You soon get the ability to rapid fire, to move in multiple directions, and even to shift your viewpoint. As you go through the game, your enemies evolve from the pixilated space aliens you know and love to fully 3-D polygonal models. Eventually you are picking up power-ups and blasting through fully animated bosses like your favorite bullet-hell shoot em’ ups.
Like I said, this game was original released for the iPhone, but the console release is way better. They have included new weapons (several new homing weapons, different spread shots, so on so forth) which were able to be seen but not played with in the demo. There also appears to be branching paths and secret levels added to spice up the whole affair.
The graphics are still as charmingly retro as always, but as they evolve they get better, and in the higher evolved stages Square has certainly put some polish on the whole deal. Edges are smoothed, lines have become crisper, and the whole thing is up-rezed in a very stylish manner. The scrolling backgrounds, while slightly nauseating, still look as bad-ass as ever and the shifting 3-D viewpoints just make the game that much cooler.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene features several modes. Normal mode will have you playing through the standard evolution of the Space Invaders game. Challenge mode generates 99 random stages for you to fly through, each different and more challenging than the last. Finally, Music Mode generates stages based on music you have stored on your console, so not only will you be able to fly through stages based on your favorite playlists, the stages will actually react to the music you are playing, much like the classic shooter Rez.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene is genius in its simplicity. It’s just a shooter that gets increasingly more complex and pretty as you play it. It’s retro and next-gen all at the same time. Long story short, it’s good. Be on the lookout for Space Invaders Infinity Gene coming this fall for XBLA and PSN.
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