Space Invaders Extreme is one of the absolute best retro-revival titles of the last few years, right up there with Pac-Man: Championship Edition. It takes the core gameplay of a very well established classic title, gives it a few meaningful tweaks, and serves it up with a very funky new coat of paint that makes it all feel new.

Space Invaders originally came out in 1978, hence this special 30th anniversary edition. It was an uncompromisingly simple turret shooter, the first of it’s kind, and it was so popular that it actually caused a quarter shortage in its homeland. While the extreme edition has more than a few tweaks, the basic gameplay remains the same: the player controls a small turret that slides horizontally across the bottom of the screen as hordes of digital crustaceans inch their way down.

In this edition, single players can face the various stages in the Arcade, Ranking, or Clear Game modes, each of which presents the same stages in order (Arcade allows you to save and continue after each stage, while ranking is there for score only). Each stage has several waves of the baddies, and enemy types are varied and plentiful, each type with its own set of characteristics. Some are tiny, some have shields, some are fast, some like to attempt suicide-bombings of your turret, and some of the little jerks like to turn on their side, presenting you with only a pixel to shoot at. Touché.

There are several power-ups, which drop after mowing down four or more same-colored invaders. Red beasties drop bombs, green ones leave a spread shot, black drops shields, and blue creatures yield a super-powerful laser. UFO’s also fly across the screen, and successfully shooting one down nets you features like bonus rounds (which play out like challenging minigames), a roulette wheel of power-up features, or the unfortunate laser blast to the turret. Finally, each stage ends with a challenging, duel-screen boss battle. The game is all about twitch skills, and as such, getting the highest score and the best ranking is paramount. The trick is all in learning and manipulating patterns. Knowing when to shoot down flashing UFOs to get a bonus round and earn the appropriately extreme “fever time” is the key to astronomical scores; and getting the hang of using various enemy types (especially the explosive ones) and milking power-ups for all they’re worth are essential survival skills in later stages.

It’s all quite a bit to keep up with – this isn’t your father’s Space Invaders. In fact the comforting home shields of the original game are nowhere to be seen – this is the extreme version, after all. In addition to the waves of enemies, enemy projectiles, UFOs, constant bonus round and fever time pacing and boss battling, the title’s audio-visual presentation bombards the senses. This isn’t a bad thing, since your shots (and shots that bounce off enemy shields) actually sync up and add beats to the funky music, and the entire aesthetic is quite appealing in that retro-futuristic way that’s all the rage right now. However, it does take a bit of getting used to, as does the breakneck pace.

After a few rounds, even the clumsiest player will get the hang of the mechanics (which are quite simple, after all), and find the title maddeningly addictive. Like Tetris before it, players who spend any real length of time with the game will begin to see tiny digital space creatures descending during boring everyday tasks, or they’ll start humming the tunes absently. It is a relatively hardcore game – the challenge ramps right up around the third stage boss battle - a feature that only serves the “one more game!” mentality.

This time around, there’s also an addictive multiplayer mode wherein two to four players can go head-to-head via wireless play (your options are the typical single card download play or multi-card play) or competition/rankings by way of the DS wi-fi connection. Multiplayer makes very cool use of the duel screens – your game screen shows up on the touch screen, while everything going on with your opponent shows up in the upper screen. Shooting down UFOs sends a new wave of enemies at your adversary, making for a clever (and appropriately frenzied) take on the “garbage block” concept in competitive puzzlers.

Even if you’ve never tried Space Invaders before, the title is totally worth it for the sheer bang for your buck factor. When $20 buys you one of the best-updated classic games of all time, you have no reason to complain. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go ice my aching thumbs.

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