Space Invaders Get Even is only 500 Wii Points ($5), which sounds like a huge bargain until you realize that that only buys you two levels and a boss battle.
If you like Taito's 30th-anniversary re-imagining of its historic arcade game, and you very well may, you'll have to pony up another five bucks per level. There are four available, meaning that the entirety of this WiiWare game will actually run you $20. The crazy thing is that it might actually be worth it -- I had a blast this evening playing through the first batch of Get Even levels.
The premise is simple: This time around, you are the invaders. It's a unique twist on the Geometry Wars-style shooter. You control the UFO mothership with the joystick, and use the pointer to tell your invaders what to attack. You fire them like bullets at buildings, tanks, airplanes, and everything else that the human race sends to thwart your invasion.
Your main concerns are keeping your crew of invaders together so you can do the most damage with your attacks, and keeping enough time on the clock. The timer, which slowly ticks down, is also your energy meter. As you're attacked, you lose seconds on the clock; if it hits zero, your invasion is over.
Each level has a certain goal that needs to be accomplished. In the first, you have to take down four replicas of the Tokyo Tower that dot the city. In the second, you have to take down two war planes. In the third, you're just fighting against a massive tank boss.
But even though these are your only goals, you don't want to just race through the level avoiding everything else just to get to them. Destroying things adds time to the clock, so you'll want to take out buildings along the way. And you've got to dodge and weave around the hail of bullets that the annoying humans keep firing at you, so destroying them so they can't shoot anymore is also important.
You can flip between a few different methods of attack. The basic one just shoots the invaders out like bullets, and you have to wait a short while until they come back to the ship. Others include sending them out like bouncing balls that thud around the city doing major damage to the targets they encounter, or just compressing them all together and doing big damage to a very small area.
Finally, you've got a screen-clearing special attack that you can use a limited number of times.
Stonehenge replicas set up around the city let you completely recharge your clock to the maximum of 180 seconds; you should of course use these strategically, when you're low on time.
The humans will set up barriers to your progress, and you'll often have to eliminate a power control center to lower them before you can move on. At this point, a "Bonus" meter will start ticking down; if you can clear the mini-challenge before time runs out you'll get bonus points.
I'm finding the gameplay to be addictive and well-balanced. I had a hard time clearing the second level until I really focused myself. Unfortunately, my $5 went rather quickly -- it won't take very long before you've finished the first set of three levels and the game gives you the modern-day equivalent of "Insert Coin To Continue."
*Space Invaders Get Even *is currently available in Japan. It will be released in Europe in October. It will almost definitely be released in America, someday.
Image: Taito
