Everyone in their twenties or thirties who managed to grow up with arcade games will no doubt be familiar with Ye Olde Space Invaders. In this game, players try to destroy waves upon waves of pixellated aliens bent on invading the Earth with the use of a laser cannon that can be moved horizontally and shoot tiny but potent rounds.

Published in the US by Square Enix and created to commemorate the game's 30th anniversary, Taito's revamped Space Invaders Extreme for both the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable is practically the same game as the 1970's original - lone laser cannon tries to fend off alien invasion - but that's just where the similarity ends to a certain degree.

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Yet another remake?

Many people will no doubt ask this question: is Space Invaders Extreme indeed worth your time, effort, and money? Is this (yet another) rehash of a 30-year-old game worth a second glace?

If all the nostalgia and mindless "pew-pew" brand of handheld fun that you can expect from an arcade shooter isn't enough to pull you in, let's just say that all the new things in this particular Space Invaders remake certainly provides sufficient reason why you should give this game your attention.

The aliens and the space cannon still look their pixellated best and the enemies are still animated with only two frames. But don't think  they didn't add in anything new because the gameplay has been improved immensely. There's the addition of bonus stages and branch-off paths towards the final FINAL boss, new ammunition, an updated roster of alien invaders, and a nifty chain combo system, among other things.

Once you boot up the game, you'll be greeted with the Square Enix logo if you play the US version of the game. But don't be alarmed; you won't see your favorite old-school arcade shooter get an unwelcome overhaul with a noticeable abundance of zippers, belts, and emo kid pilots with gravity-defying hairstyles.

Taito just happens to be a subsidiary of Square Enix, which localized the game for US audiences.

When you jump into the meat of the game, you'll find that it's still the same Space Invaders you might know and love - until you notice the new additions such as the new weapons, enemies, and other cool features.

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Pew Pew Pew

Shooting four identically-colored enemies in a row will net you a special weapon that corresponds to the color of the aliens you shoot down: blue enemies will get you a powerful laser beam, red will let you get your hands on bombs, green will broaden your shots while certain gray enemies will grant you temporary shields.

Each of these special weapons have a rapidly-depleting timer, and you can use them as much as you want until the timer reaches zero. There's a way of conserving these weapons, and that's by holding down either of the shoulder buttons. Doing so will suspend the timer, and you will be firing normal ammo until you let go of the L or R shoulder buttons.

Pew pew pew.

In the original Space Invaders, the gameplay was all about shooting the aliens down like there's no tomorrow, as well as the occasional UFO that flies past for bonus points. While Space Invaders Extreme manages to keep that basic premise at its very core, it also adds several layers of additional twists that aren't overbearing.

One of these changes is "summoning" the UFO. Yes, players can now actually determine when the UFO will appear on screen by shooting down aliens in a particular order. For example, taking down four enemies of a single color and then another group of four enemies in a different color will summon the rainbow UFO.

Shooting the psychedelic-colored UFO, by the way, sends you to a bonus stage where you have to meet given requirements for you to go into "Fever Time." In Fever Time, your laser cannon gets souped up with uber-powerful weapons that last only for a short period of time, similar to the timed special weapons. Unlike the special weapons, however, Fever Time weapons cannot be paused by pressing the shoulder buttons.

Other kinds of UFOs can be unlocked through different combinations of enemies, and you're free to experiment by mixing and matching groups based on colors, shapes... basically, shoot your heart out. Go crazy!

Another change that you'll notice right away as soon as you start up Arcade Mode is the trippy overall interface and sounds that manage to give Space Invaders its much-needed spacey look and feel beyond its basic premise of defeating aliens from outer space.

Gone is the simplistic, monotone heartbeat track that goes faster and faster as you shoot down more and more aliens - instead, your ears will now be treated to some quirky tunes that are actually pretty catchy. The in-game soundtrack will most certainly appeal to fans of electronica, and similar to Q Entertainment's Lumines, every sound effect (shooting, hitting enemies) contributes to the overall rhythm of the music.

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Adrenaline-pumping action

Of course, these are all just cosmetic changes. The BIGGEST change so far is the fact that Space Invaders Extreme does away with the barriers that you once used to take temporary shelter from shells and beams. Yep, those small, bulky arches that once took enemy fire for you just so you can compose yourself and try again are gone, which makes you that much more vulnerable to enemy fire.

Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as game changes go. First off, this makes the game more exciting - forcing you to literally think on your feet and rely on your reflexes to dodge the beams and rays headed your direction. It's more run-and-gun now rather than duck-and-cover, and the game plays all the better for it.

Second is that the removal of barriers makes sense, as far as giving you space to use your newly-acquired weapons is concerned. Take the blue alien weapon powerup for example - the Laser. With it, you can wipe out an entire screen of enemies by simply holding down the fire button and moving your cannon from one side of the screen to the other. If they still kept in the barricades, the laser's "flow" would be interrupted, and you wouldn't be able to get the satisfaction of wiping the screen clean of alien scum with one shot. So the omission surprisingly works, as major as it is.

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Multiplayer Mayhem

Space Invaders Extreme, for both versions, also allows you to play with friends. And while both versions are pretty much equal in terms of gameplay, visuals and so on, this is the department where the DS version wins out over the PSP version.

Yes, both the PSP and the DS version of Space Invaders Extreme will let you play with someone near you (Ad-Hoc and Wireless Play), but only the DS version lets you play against people over the Internet through Wi-Fi, as well as online leaderboards to keep track of your own score.

And in a neat feature, the DS's top screen keeps track of your opponent's progress by displaying their game screen, but in the old-fashioned Space Invaders style. So you'll know when to step up the alien-blasting!

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The alien invader is happy.

Final Verdict

Engrossing, addictive, pleasing to the eyes and ears, Space Invaders Extreme gives justice to the original game's 30-year-old fanbase. Sure, it's been through the remake machine more times than we can count (even through homebrew!), but this one hits it just right: the same old alien-shooting gameplay with just a few extra frills added to make the experience all the more awesome.

From the way the sound effects synchronize with the background music to the plethora of alien-busting attacks at your disposal, Space Invaders Extreme is worth every penny and more. Thus we award Space Invaders Extreme for both the PSP and DS four out of five stars.