Rainbow Invaders

It's at about this time of year that almost every quiz show, every lifestyle programme, every every programme, suddenly comes prefixed with the word 'celebrity'.

Established series subtly and not-so-subtly are reworked to include the current band of Heat regulars in attempt to make them more palatable to a mainstream, festive audience.

Sometimes, as in the case of Celebrity Big Brother, it actually results in a show better than the original. Sometimes it doesn't. Celebrity Come Dine with Me, I'm looking at you.

Rainbow Invaders carries much of the same spirit, the aim being to take an established format and give it something of a fresh coat of paint to carry it to a new generation. Naturally, Taito classic Space Invaders is the source material here, Rainbow Invaders doing what it suggests in the title - adding a splash of colour to gameplay that retains much of the same structure.

Ironically, Rainbow Invaders is actually a name used by an already existing Space Invaders mod, and Q-Plaze's version is instantly recognisable as being from the same family, the 'invaders' in question shuffling towards your position at the bottom of the screen.

In much the same fashion as the original, your job is to clear the board, shooting from your craft using the '5' key, shifting left and right to alter your target.

The main difference in terms of this colourful clone, besides the rainbow fuelled backgrounds, is that the aliens shift about more, both horizontally and vertically, some falling towards the ground at pace. Your approach too can be adapted, power-ups and bonuses falling towards the bottom when certain targets are taken out.

The whole thing has a more fluid feel to it as a result.

However, feeling more fluid isn't necessarily a good thing. Rainbow Invaders lacks the focus of its source material, and the whole thing feels a touch sloppy in contrast.

While there's variety on offer (whether winning or losing, Rainbow Invaders has a host of levels that it chucks in your direction, boss style battles the most tricky), play doesn't really offer anything revolutionary or new, instead simply messing with a formula that's been messed with far better elsewhere.