Evolving Emancipator- Space Invaders Infinity Gene Reviewed

True evolution is difficult to accurately depict in a game. An ecosystem must contain significant diversity and the inhabitants must be able to give and take. The inhabitants must have some semblance of varying genetic code that is passed on in reproduction. These are the building blocks for adaptation and a proper playground for mutation. Genetics will likely never be fully understood, yielding simulations that are partially built on pseudoscience. Space Invaders Infinity Gene dodges this bullet by being more of an homage to evolution than a simulation thereof.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is an iPhone/Touch shmup (ported from mobile phones) that muses on what it would mean for a game as simple as the original Space Invaders to evolve. Space Invaders Extreme succeeded in being a great sequel to the original Space Invaders. Infinity Gene is much more subtle, quickly building upon the original concept as you play. The better you do, the higher your score. The higher your score, the better and more featured various parts of the game become. As the game goes through each “evolution”, it begins to show shades of other shmups gamers have enjoyed since the creation of Space Invaders. In a way, Infinity Gene tells us that all shmups are evolved descendants of Space Invaders and I don’t find fault in that.

Infinity Gene begins with you playing the original game for a few seconds, it then “evolves” to the first stage of the main game. You now have a simple rapid fire ship and it starts throwing faster and more varied enemies at you. As you progress and succeed in scoring points, the game keeps evolving. Evolutions include alterations like weapon upgrading powerups obtained from shooting UFOs and the enabling of vertical ship movement (not just horizontal). You can even unlock new ships, referred to as “arms”. Each arm is somewhat simple but different from the others. My favorite arm is the “round” which feels a bit clunky at first because it fires from two side pods (not the ship’s center) and fires the direction opposite the one it’s traveling. However, this means it can fire in any direction and its shots also destroy most enemy projectiles as well as enemies! This can make for huge chain kills with effective piloting.

Your score is mainly effected by chaining kills. Continue destroying enemies (and/or projectiles) without allowing too long of a pause in between kills and you’ll rack up your chain count. There’s also the “nagoya attacks” (a reference to the technique of waiting to shoot invaders at point blank in the original game) which means touching an enemy projectile right after it’s launched. If you do this before the projectile becomes solid instead of transparent, you’ll add to your nagoya attack count which significantly adds to your score. Sitting right in front of an enemy firing tons of projectiles means you can rack up a huge nagoya attack count and remain unharmed. This adds a great risk and reward element. The true secret to high scores seems to be knowing which arm to use on which stages. The game designers did an excellent job of creating stages that can be taken advantage of depending on which arm you’re piloting. I do wish I could take advantage of this and switch between arms after each stage without losing my current cross-stage score, but I’m not allow. Still, it’s a fair limitation.

Making your way through Infinity Gene‘s stages is a fairly short trip but bears a lot of replay. It will take you quite a while to unlock all the evolutions (arms, extra side stages, music, sound, etc.) and you’ll have fun doing so. When you’re a few points away from an evolution, it’s hard not to want to keep playing. Hard mode is unlocked after beating normal and it adds significant challenge to all stages. New to the iPhone/Touch version of Infinity Gene is the ability to generate varied and challenging stages from songs in your iPod library. The levels last the entirety of the song so those long progressive rock jams and classical pieces will have you running a rather long gauntlet. I’m a big fan of this kind of thing. Nothing says value like a near infinite amount of stages. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a bit on the pricey side of the average iPhone/Touch game at $4.99 USD, but I can honestly say it’s worth it. It’s unlike any other shmup and acts as an excellent gaiden or “side story” of sorts to Space Invaders Extreme. My one complaint is that the game’s touch controls can be a bit awkward at times. Your ship moves faster than you drag your finger, so sometimes your finger can obscure the ship. This could be fairly easily fixed with an update.

Where the game shines is its complexity in combining many easy to grasp elements. Its simple but plentiful black and white sprites on top of clean color backgrounds reinforce this from the get-go. Its pulsing chiptune music and blippy crunchy sounds, help to keep it alive. Because of all of this, the game feels fairly deep for a shmup and yet never feels daunting.