Space Invaders Review – Very Old, but It Still Has Some Fun if You Give It a Chance!

Exploring gaming history is one of my hobbies and a reason why I enjoy working on this blog. As such, I actively seek out old games and try to give them a chance even if they are dated. One example is Taito’s Space Invaders which was released in 1978.

Gameplay

According to Wikipedia, Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter along with the first game that was endless. As many of us know, it is a shooter where you have to defeat waves of descending aliens as they come down the screen. You move from left to right, and press a button to fire your gun and hopefully hit one of the aliens. One thing that is impressive is that you can shoot the aliens’ bullets with your own. If you hit one it explodes, causing no damage. Unfortunately, your bullets are rather slow, which is irritating.

All the while the aliens are marching across the screen. Once they reach the edge they move a little bit closer to the bottom.

Along with your main weapon, you also have some bases that are in front of you that can block bullets. These are damaged as they are hit and eventually, they are destroyed. If all the bases are destroyed, or the aliens come all the way to the bottom of the screen, you lose the game.

Another interesting aspect is that the game include a UFO that flies across the screen near the top. You can destroy it for a lot of bonus points.

Tension and Music

You may remember from my previous review of Namco’s Galaxian that I liked its sense of tension. Space Invaders has that component as well. Here, it’s heightened through the use of a simple musical score, if you can call it that. It’s essentially a repeating beat that speeds up as the aliens reach the bottom of the screen. I doubt anyone would be impressed by it today, but I consider it an effective use of sound.

Concerning other sound effects, like firing your cannon, they are just there. They work, and aren’t irritating.

Graphics

Less interesting are the game’s graphics. Mind you, the background graphic showing the moon is impressive. It’s no wonder that it was absent from many home ports from the 1980’s! Yet, the sprites of your cannon and the aliens are boring. Probably the most intriguing aspect about the sprites is the shear number of them. There are a lot of aliens to destroy! even so, they don’t look that great. This isn’t surprising considering the year the game was made.

Additional Options

On a different note, since I played this on Taito Legends 1 for the OG Xbox, I like that it includes a few additional options. For example, you can turn off the color overlay for the aliens and your canon. This makes the sprites be just white in color. You can also turn off the previously mentioned background graphics.

Summary

Although there isn’t too much to this title nowadays, I could see why it was hit back in the late 1970’s! I enjoyed the tension of the game and some of its innovative aspects, such as being able to hit enemy bullets and that it was endless. I look forward to playing other games in the series.

Title: Space Invaders (Wikipedia)
Genre: Fixed Shooter
Year Released: 1978
Developer: Taito (Japanese Website)
Available On: Taito Legends 1 on the Xbox and PlayStation 2. It has also been ported to a multitude of different systems through the years.
Price Paid: $0.34, or $9.79 for Taito Legends 1.

Remember, we can have different opinions about the games we play. If you like something more (or less) than I do, both of our perspectives are valid.