Space Invaders Extreme

There is depth here, though, for those who want it. Serious players can level up their weapons by achieving high scores. There's even a bit of tactical strategy involved; holding down a shoulder button switches back to your normal gun and preserves any power left in your special weapon meter, so you can save it till just the right moment. You can take out enemies by column and row for yet more points, earn multipliers, extend Fever Time, shoot down Super Jackpot UFOs... In short, the points system has enough layers and twists to challenge the most experienced high-score whore.

Then there are those multiplayer modes, each one playable by up to four players. In Survivor you fight it out on individual playing fields, and enemies you destroy descend on your opponents. The problem is the playing fields are quite small so they all fit on the same screen, and unless you're using a big telly you'll find yourself squinting a bit.

In Score Attack you have a single, full-sized playing field and different-coloured ships. The objective is to shoot down enemies before your opponent and thereby rack up the most points. It's much more enjoyable than Versus - unless you're the first person to run out of lives. Then, if the other player is still alive, there's nothing to do but sit back and watch them shoot. You won't get a continue no matter how many 10p coins you shove in the disc drive.

There's also a co-op mode. This involves completing the same levels as in the single-player game, except the odds are improved by the fact there are two or more of you shooting. Not as challenging then, but fun enough, and ideal for playing with kids or people who are useless at games.

All the multiplayer modes can be played online as well as locally, or that's the theory. Having tried all the permutations of match types and ranking options we couldn't find a single game to join, or anyone to play against when hosting. This was on a Thursday morning, though - you might have more luck on a Friday night.

The final elements of the "Extreme" package are the visuals and audio. The backgrounds are brightly coloured and trippy, but not to the point where they provide a distraction from the gameplay. Expect swirling shapes and blurry planetscapes, the kind of thing you'd see on a flyer in 1994 along with a word like "UNIVERSAL" and the slogan "FOR THE LOVE OF DANCE £3 b4 10pm".

Turns out Llamasoft's Jeff Minter, the man behind Space Giraffe and the Xbox 360 music visualiser, is responsible for the backgrounds. If you're familiar with his work you won't be surprised. When I asked Eurogamer's Oli Welsh to guess who'd designed the backgrounds in Space Invaders Extreme, Jeff was his first answer.

The clubby feel is compounded by the game's soundtrack, which for the most part is fast-paced and really rather jolly drum and bass. It's enhanced by the shooting sound effects as you play; they're loud and plinky and bright. The overall effect is reminiscent of Rez - repetitive beats with chaotic electro-percussion over the top. It's fantastic if you're the one playing, but if you're trying to read and you don't like videogames much anyway you're likely to rustle your newspaper loudly and say things like, "If I was making a film about the endless nightmare of living with a games journalist, this would be the soundtrack." Whatever, GRANDDAD.

The tripped-out backgrounds and repetitive beats make the game feel a bit nineties, but that doesn't matter; in fact the effect is positive. You know you're playing a game which has moved on in the past 30 years, but there's still a retro feel to it. Plus it must be brilliant if you're on drugs.

So what's the asking price for the faster enemies, the stupid guns, the multiplayer modes and a peek at the inside of Jeff Minter's brain? 800 Microsoft Points, equivalent to GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60. Which is a bit steep. This is an old game, the single-player campaign doesn't last that long and the multiplayer modes aren't interesting or varied enough to provide long-term value. A price somewhere below the five pound mark would have been more appropriate.

All the same, there's no denying Space Invaders Extreme is great fun. Like the excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition, it adds new layers of depth to an old classic, and does so with style. It might not offer hours and hours of entertainment, but it's perfect for quick blasts of play. It's ideal for those times when you can't be bothered with the drug dealers or the Nazis or the wooden crates or the Poorly Lit Caves of Krobnobnogar, and just want to press one button to shoot some aliens. Preferably with some stupid guns.