Space Invaders: Infinity Gene


LOVE Lots of unlockables, fresh new take on the game, infinitely replayable music mode
HATE Annoying soundtrack, wonky control system

This revamped and revved up version of the original classic is bursting to the seams with ideas and novel gameplay. Punctuated with a quote from Charles Darwin on the theory of evolution, the game has you going through some 18 different levels which evolve along with your ship. As you kill enemy ships and rack up a score, you earn Evolution points
that go towards new bonuses and abilities like new weapons as well as extra one-off side missions. While you start out with a vanilla forward firing gun, you can work your way up to exotic weapons like tracking missiles and a delightfully unsporting point defence gun that destroys incoming enemy weapons fire.

Every new level tosses new gameplay concepts at you ranging from top scrolling levels, boss battles, flying through narrow canyons, shooting up humongous Independence Day sized UFOs, dodging intricate patterns of incoming enemy fire and more. Unfortunately, this is where the game falters as the control system doesn’t let allow for precision control of your ship and more often than not, your ship gets obscured by your fingers only to be blown to bits by a shot you didn’t see. The bundled levels should last you a good four or so hours on normal mode.

Once you’re done with the single player levels, there’s still quite a bit of replayability as the game has a special music mode where you play a song off your iPod and it’ll generate a level based on that song. The old school graphics are gorgeous but the music is infuriatingly annoying, featuring repetitive electronic bleats like an old-style modem gone mad; more so for the fact that you can’t turn the music off or play your own tunes during the game barring during music mode. That aside, this makes for a sinfully indulgent buy; just don’t forget to mute the audio.