Square Enix refreshes Taito classics for DS with new Space Invaders and Puzzle Bobble
Seminal is never senile
Personally I think I've probably had about as much of Space Invaders and Puzzle Bobble as one man can take. They may have been highlights of entertainment in the 1980s but things have moved on a bit since then. There have been a lot of terrible remakes of those games over the years too.
Still, I'm prepared to be surprised. After all Square Enix did a very decent job with 2008's Space Invaders Extreme.
It will be getting a sequel in the pulsating, dropping alien form of Space Invaders Extreme 2.
This takes the basic Space Invaders concept and layers on cutting-edge graphics and interactive audio, plus a whole range of power-ups, in the way we've seen in DS games such as Big Bang Mini and Nervous Brickdown.
Other features include; new stages, a beginners course, a time attack mode, and enhanced battle play.
There will also be support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in terms of multiplayer gaming and global ranking. Adhoc multiplayer is included too.
As for Puzzle Bobble Galaxy, it's a version of the standard match-3 puzzler, featuring the Bubble Bobble brothers Bub and Bob, with you shooting bubbles from a cannon at the bottom of the screen.
As you accumulate points, you can use them to buy items including extra modes, and extra bubbles and arrows. There will also be mini-game modes including Factory mode, in which you have limited number of bubbles with which to clear the stage, Pressure mode, in which you only have one bubble, and a Puzzle mode. Puzzle Bobble Galaxy supports the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for 2-4 player multiplayer.
Both games are planned to be released in Europe during the Autumn.