I'm sure that already sounds far too complex for anyone to keep in mind, but it's actually quite a simple rhythm to get into. You receive a score multiplier (up to x10), and if you manage to max your multiplier and then complete a Flashing UFO mini-game, you'll extend Fever Time, which might allow you to shoot enough "Jackpot UFOs" to eventually hit a "Super Jackpot UFO." You're also encouraged to make sure you're continuously killing enemies anyway, by the bonuses incurred by chaining kills within about three seconds of each other. If you complete that, you'll enter "Fever Time", where you gain a huge increase in power for a limited amount of time, allowing you to carve your enemies up with ease and receive a huge bonus. If you manage to shoot the Flashing UFO, you'll leave the level you were on, and go to a short mini-game in which you have a set task (for example, to shoot a UFO that's surrounded by several spinning barriers of enemies). The backgrounds can be kind of distracting, but you can turn their brightness down. If you then shoot four enemies of a different colour (for example, if you shoot four red enemies then four blue) you'll spawn a "Flashing UFO". If you shoot four enemies of the same colour one after another, a power-up will drop that allows your ship a limited amount of time with a powered-up weapon, such as a laser or bomb. In Space Invaders Extreme, every enemy has a colour. Thankfully, it's gone a step further and added what is probably the most in-depth scoring mechanic I've seen since (wanky hardcore name-drop imminent) Radiant Silvergun. If this was all that Taito had done, other than adding a very Q Entertainment-inspired sound and graphics update, there wouldn't really be much to say about Space Invaders Extreme (though the fact that the sound effects work as part of the soundtrack is pleasant).
It keeps the crab-walking enemies that encroach on the player ever-faster as their numbers are destroyed, and chooses to enhance this by featuring different formations and types of enemy rather than adding Galaxian-style swarms or any other blatant complications.
Space Invaders Extreme is very faithful to the most important things that make a Space Invaders game rather than just another shooter. The amazing thing is that Taito has been so successful in doing this again with Space Invaders Extreme. The message that can be taken from Space Invaders' humble beginning is that you can make clever use of a source's interesting aspects (in that case, rows of blocks that need to be destroyed by a craft at the bottom of the screen, and the sense of achievement from doing so) and create something unique and worthwhile in its own right. As it turns out, it's not only a suitable theme for this intro, but I can use it to link to the Arkanoid DS review too. Hey! Did you know that Space Invaders was originally inspired by Breakout? I didn't - until I looked at Space Invader's Wikipedia page in a desperate attempt to come up with an interesting fact to begin this review.
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