Alien Invaders - Plus!

The Good
In the late Seventies, a popular game by Taito took the world by storm, and that game was Space Invaders. The object is to shoot rows upon rows of invaders that make their way down toward you. The game was released on the most popular systems at the time, but the Magnavox Odyssey2 missed out. However, it would get its own modified version two years later, and in my opinion, it is even better.

Sixteen invaders shoot lasers at your ship from above. These lasers are so fast that you will get killed straight away even if you blink. The game doesn’t have a lives indicator. There are instead three shields at the bottom of the screen that also serve as shuttle bays, and when you are hit by an alien, you are not killed but replaced by a blue figure which must rush to one of the shields so you can grab an extra ship. The catch is: get killed while making your way over, and it’s a win for the aliens.

The invaders are also difficult to kill; the green barriers and invaders themselves change positions, and it is likely that your shots will count as a miss unless you develop some strategy on winning. My strategy is to use stealth; hide behind one of my three shields, take a few pot shots, and go back behind them and eventually move to the next one while I am shooting.

The highlight of this game is the red, tentacled monster, which is well designed. It travels along the top of the screen, shooting lasers at you. It presents more of a threat when you used up all your reserves, making its way down, going through the aliens if it needs to, and looming over you wherever you go, firing at you at close range. The aliens look like your blue figure, only red. I find it funny that the second row of aliens look like toadstools. Sound-wise, the two-tone effect during the game is not annoying, and the little melody heard when you lose a round is excellent.

The Bad
Can’t think of anything.

The Bottom Line
Alien Invaders - Plus! has similar gameplay mechanics as Taito's game: you destroy rows of invaders while moving your ship left or right to avoid their own shots. However, sixteen invaders are displayed and these are difficult to kill. Get shot at and you will have to get a reserve ship from any of the shields. There is also a brilliantly-drawn space monster that makes your life difficult. Graphics and sound are excellent, and the game deserves to be in your Odyssey2 collection if you are a fan of classic shooters.

The Good
This is a hard game to rate. The game has okay (for old 8-bit) graphics and the usual non-descript beeps and bloops for sound. The game requires you to be patient, and adopt a shooting pattern of dodging back and forth while you pick off the 'mushroom' shaped guns. (They are actually the familiar O2 'tree' character with the tops truncated.) Once the cannons are gone, the aliens themselves are easy pickings. The alien 'mothership' actually looks cool.

The Bad
The game is fairly tough. I honestly think all games should have a variety of difficulty levels - not everyone is a skilled gamer.

It would have been nice to maybe add some variations in the playfield or other options to just shake things up - but then again, this is a 2K game. If it were a 4K game, they could have done a heck of a lot more!

The Bottom Line
Worth giving a try if you like Space Invaders and want something with just a bit of a different slant.