Bytten

It would seem that once again you are being called to arms in defense of Mankind and spare us the horrors of yet another terrible alien menace from the stars! Well, okay. If I must. Despite my own preconceptions and a tendency to be biased toward any game with the word "Invader" in the title (oh please not another Space Invaders clone!), I found myself pleasantly surprised with Hyperspace Invader in a number of ways.

Hyperspace Invader is a remarkably easy game to control. You control a ship on a 2-d plane where you can move left, right, forward, and backwards. As well, various weapons can be fired at enemy targets whilst you zig and zag picking up bonuses and power-ups along the way. Just about everything is controlled with your computer's mouse.

One of the things that impressed me about this game are the graphics. While you can only maneuver your ship in 2 dimensions, everything is wonderfully rendered in 3D. That everything is in 3D is not what was impressive, rather that Urse Games chose to render everything as though it were from the pages of a well-drawn graphic novel. The terrain, ships, alien battle-craft, and backgrounds look like they have been drawn and inked by hand which really adds to the space-fantasy heroic aspect of this game. After all, what could be more fun than partaking in a comic-book soap-opera?

The soundscape of Hyperspace Invader is about average for what you would expect from this kind of cosmic-battle game. First, the music is a fast-paced techno-beat that adds to the frenetic speed of the game. Should the music become bothersome it is fully adjustable. Next, throughout the game you'll hear about every weapon sound you could imagine and a host of explosions as you decimate the enemy of mankind. Nothing overly creative or innovative here, though I'm at a loss as how it could be improved.

Wander the internet and you'll find hundreds of games of this ilk. Imagine my surprise when I had to admit to myself that this game is very playable. I've not played every game in this genre, but I definitely found the game controls responsive and easy to use, which is saying a lot when I have played many games wherein control was limited to the keyboard.

There really is not much here that is radically different from other games, though Hyperspace Invader also allows the player to choose from a selection of ships, which are not unlocked until later in the game, but it does allow the player to replay levels to find the best tool for the job. In short, this is a game that has a lot of replay value.

If you are a fan of the space shoot 'em up genre, this game is worth a good look for the graphics alone. You'll not find anything terribly new or innovative, however when you combine the ease of the game controls with the visual, you end up with a very playable game. Like I mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by this game and I think you might too. For those that do not often play around with space shoot 'em ups, well, give the demo a try. You might find yourself surprised by memories of your former arcade game days as memories of Zaxxon and Galaga rise to the surface of your thoughts.

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