Space Invaders X (Playstation)

Vertical fixed
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
10 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Z-Axis
Published by Activision in 1999

Once a powerhouse in the arcade scene, Taito was surely having a hard time by the end of the 90s. Their international divisions in Europe and America were closed. The company was undergoing a significant financial and operational decline, transitioning away from international game development to focus on non-gaming endeavors in the domestic Japanese market. That's why it came as no surprise that people started seeing their IPs being handed over to different companies. Space Invaders X, for example, is the first entry in the series historically not developed by Taito.

California-based Z-Axis took to themselves the task of delivering another chapter of the franchise, and their biggest effort here was to render all moving objects – including the player, enemies, weapons and power-ups – all in 3D. And just like many of the games that tried to capitalize on the 3D fad during the 32-bit era, it didn't have a long life in the memory of players. On top of that, the lame title was no help either... Released in Japan as Space Invaders X, in all other regions the game came out simply as Space Invaders. Just for the sake of having a basic level of distinction, from now on let us stick with the Japanese name.

Introduction and attract mode of Space Invaders X
(courtesy of YouTube user Video Game Intros and Title Screens)

So what's new in the same old mission of fending off hordes of aliens that threaten to invade and conquer the Earth? In terms of excitement, not much. Space Invaders X is a lengthy and remarkably easy game that's perfect for people who'd like to get an almost effortless clear. It's a far cry from Space Invaders - Fukkatsu No Hi or Space Invaders '91, for example, and unless you're a diehard fan of this series chances are you won't remember much of it after a while.

Each stage is split in 10 invader waves + a stage boss, as you start in Pluto and advance planet by planet into the core of the Solar System. Your ship is equipped with two inputs, both configurable as you wish: shot and special weapon. Every time four enemies of the same type are killed you earn the right to use a special weapon, from a wide selection that includes: horizontal left, horizontal right, vertical burst, diagonal burst, swarm missiles, laser blaster, boomerang shot, acidic cloud, sine wave missile, tank kamikaze, pyramid blast, silo attack and radiant burst.

Considering they're related to the type of enemy, some of the special weapons mentioned above will only be available much later in the game. In general, they're all relatively helpful in destroying enemy waves quicker, as it's rather usual to chain successive special attacks to deplete invader waves in a snap. Besides special weapons, let's not forget the extra enhancements provided by items that fall down from destroyed saucers. These can be shield, double shot, time freeze and max energy (gives out a special weapon based on the last invader destroyed). The shield and the double shot are easily the most important ones from the bunch. Dying strips you off all these enhancements, and is the worst thing that can happen in any given scenario.

Vertical burst incoming!

 

It doesn't take too long to realize which aspects are responsible for making Space Invaders X such a pushover. The speed of shots, either those from the enemies or your own, is rather slow, especially when compared with other entries in the franchise. All invader waves will always move to the right after spawning, never to the left, and even prior to fully materializing their hit spots will be vulnerable. This means you can kill several invaders even before they start moving and shooting, and they also die when colliding againt the floating barriers. Between the 5th and 6th wave of every level a parade of very slow saucers will cruise the screen, giving you an extra life on top of the extends you regularly get from scoring – the first with 50.000 and another one at every 100.000 points achieved.

By beating the game in the Normal difficulty the original black-and-white arcade game is unlocked in the main menu as "Classic mode". Since the credit ends in the Earth stage, the max level you'll reach in the high score table for the Normal difficulty is 80. There are, however, 2 more stages / 20 levels to be seen (Mercury and Alien World), only available when playing the game in the Expert difficulty. Finally, a Maniacal difficulty will be unlocked when beating Expert. In this final mode everything moves a lot faster, and I can't help but wonder if this actually should have been the native speed of the game all along.

All in all, the game as a whole is unfortunately pretty forgettable. Not even the techno soundtrack manages to give it any distinctive quality, given how generic it is. The photo below shows my only two valid credits playing Space Invaders X, with the first place being the 1CC in the Expert difficulty. Frankly speaking, Expert isn't that much taxing, the only thing I noticed is that the invaders close in a little faster than in the Normal difficulty.