Invader is a vertical scrolling shoot-em-up for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. There are 8 levels to shoot through each ending with a end-boss. The player can select from 2 different ships each with specific features. Enemies leave coins that can be spent in the Shop, where upgrades such as weapons, extra lives, and credits are available for purchase.
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A vertical shmup by what would later become the team responsible for Killzone and Horizon Zero Dawn. In that sense alone it's a fairly interesting little artifact; but, actually, I think it's a compelling game in its own right.
To be clear from the jump: if I were playing this on a tiny GBA screen with no autofire it'd be a 3 at best. Can't imagine mashing the A button through the entire 20+-minute runtime, listening to the fantastic DnB OST coming out of a shitty little handheld speaker.
Fortunately, I emulated it on a giant screen and with good speakers, and man, the game looks and sounds really cool. The soundtrack is one of those special, almost baffling "has-no-right-to-be-as-good-as-it-is" scenarios, and the spritework is chunky and vibrant and memorable.
The gameplay isn't as faultless, but what's most shocking is how closely it adheres to Japanese STG principles, in spite of it being by a European team. It honestly plays exactly like a Compile game (the Aleste series specifically) -- so much so that I'm not sure whether it's homage or downright theft. The coins that explode from enemies fall exactly like the power pellets in Aleste; many of the weapons feel cut from different Compile titles (and are wackily balanced like in a Compile game); even the enemy formations and behaviors feel uncannily familiar.
Not saying it's a straight rip-off of course, as it has it's own stuff going on. You can drop ground attacks like in Xevious (but they're targeted like in Rayforce), you can release bombs that move wave-like up the screen and destroy everything in their path, and, in a most Western dev twist, you can open up a shop at any time during the game in the pause menu and spend collected coins on things like power ups, speed ups, shields, lives, you name it.
The great thing is, the shop is VERY simple and light-touch, and the gameplay of Invader itself is VERY fast-and-frenetic, so it always felt like a welcome little relief to pause, upgrade my shit, and then get back to shooting. The way they integrated it is pretty ingenious, as it helps players fit the game to their playstyles by prioritizing the purchase of resources they find most valuable and/or fun. Want to bomb everything all the time? Cool. Want to coast through with shields? Great. Want to keep your weapons maxed? Awesome.
Another thing Invader does extremely well is weave a little story into the proceedings. Being forced to engage with a narrative is every shmup players nightmare, so the devs here cleverly created a little audio cue (your comms system in your ship beeping, basically) whenever there's a story element. You can choose to hit select and watch a brief interaction play out, or you can skip it entirely. Love it.
Now on to what the game does that fucking sucks: some enemies don't seal (stop shooting when you get close to them) AND continue to fire upward at you after they've passed you--even sometimes from offscreen--which leads to hideously frustrating/confusing deaths. Your ship's hitbox is FAR too big. The weapons are out of whack, with a couple OP and a couple that are flat-out unusable. And finally, it wouldn't be a Compile homage if it wasn't a stage too long.
There's certainly some clunky stuff under the hood, but Invader really impressed me overall. I had a great time learning it for a clear, and would recommend it to anyone who is itching for a more console-style shmup experience and has made their way through all of the more well-known fare.
To be clear from the jump: if I were playing this on a tiny GBA screen with no autofire it'd be a 3 at best. Can't imagine mashing the A button through the entire 20+-minute runtime, listening to the fantastic DnB OST coming out of a shitty little handheld speaker.
Fortunately, I emulated it on a giant screen and with good speakers, and man, the game looks and sounds really cool. The soundtrack is one of those special, almost baffling "has-no-right-to-be-as-good-as-it-is" scenarios, and the spritework is chunky and vibrant and memorable.
The gameplay isn't as faultless, but what's most shocking is how closely it adheres to Japanese STG principles, in spite of it being by a European team. It honestly plays exactly like a Compile game (the Aleste series specifically) -- so much so that I'm not sure whether it's homage or downright theft. The coins that explode from enemies fall exactly like the power pellets in Aleste; many of the weapons feel cut from different Compile titles (and are wackily balanced like in a Compile game); even the enemy formations and behaviors feel uncannily familiar.
Not saying it's a straight rip-off of course, as it has it's own stuff going on. You can drop ground attacks like in Xevious (but they're targeted like in Rayforce), you can release bombs that move wave-like up the screen and destroy everything in their path, and, in a most Western dev twist, you can open up a shop at any time during the game in the pause menu and spend collected coins on things like power ups, speed ups, shields, lives, you name it.
The great thing is, the shop is VERY simple and light-touch, and the gameplay of Invader itself is VERY fast-and-frenetic, so it always felt like a welcome little relief to pause, upgrade my shit, and then get back to shooting. The way they integrated it is pretty ingenious, as it helps players fit the game to their playstyles by prioritizing the purchase of resources they find most valuable and/or fun. Want to bomb everything all the time? Cool. Want to coast through with shields? Great. Want to keep your weapons maxed? Awesome.
Another thing Invader does extremely well is weave a little story into the proceedings. Being forced to engage with a narrative is every shmup players nightmare, so the devs here cleverly created a little audio cue (your comms system in your ship beeping, basically) whenever there's a story element. You can choose to hit select and watch a brief interaction play out, or you can skip it entirely. Love it.
Now on to what the game does that fucking sucks: some enemies don't seal (stop shooting when you get close to them) AND continue to fire upward at you after they've passed you--even sometimes from offscreen--which leads to hideously frustrating/confusing deaths. Your ship's hitbox is FAR too big. The weapons are out of whack, with a couple OP and a couple that are flat-out unusable. And finally, it wouldn't be a Compile homage if it wasn't a stage too long.
There's certainly some clunky stuff under the hood, but Invader really impressed me overall. I had a great time learning it for a clear, and would recommend it to anyone who is itching for a more console-style shmup experience and has made their way through all of the more well-known fare.