PixlBit

With hundreds of new indie games spilling onto the scene each month, it's easy to overlook some of the more deserving but obscure titles. Thus, this blog.

 

Titan Attacks!--Xbox Live Indie Games--Puppygames

I must have Taito on the brain this week—after reviewing a nice homage to Qix in my previous post, I now find myself playing Titan Attacks!, an obvious tribute to the company’s legendary Space Invaders. That game, of course, is essentially the template for all shooters, and has been remade and cloned an unfathomable amount of times since its own 1978 release. Even Galaga, deemed by many as the quintessential blaster of the early ‘80s, is indebted to Taito’s seminal masterpiece.

Its premise is simple; the player must blast to oblivion a legion of aliens descending towards the earth’s surface. Unfortunately, the world’s defenses are extremely limited—only a single tank stands between the enemy and the planet’s inevitable destruction. This same formula applies in Titan Attacks!, but the scope is far larger—the player must now travel through the solar system, battling far more dangerous aliens across a variety of hostile planets. Some drop explosive mines, some ricochet about the screen, and some are simply monsters that can withstand an enormous amount of punishment. Either way, the player is still horribly outgunned.

To help even the odds, the tank can be upgraded multiple times, from bolstering the rate of fire to adding extra cannons. This also grants the game a modicum of strategy—should that bit of money earned over the last three stages be used to repair the tank’s shields, or improve its main cannon? Decisions, decisions.

What makes the game truly memorable, however, are the smaller touches—the little aliens parachuting from their doomed saucers and into your relentless fire. Or the monstrous bosses raining firepower like demonic storm clouds. Similarly effective are the moody, retro-fused visuals and jazzy soundtrack, both of which leave an almost incongruously cool impression on the senses. All in all, everything is capably done.

But it’s still Space Invaders in the end, with polished but not exactly revolutionary gameplay, at least by 2014 standards. Also problematic is the title’s inexplicable lack of on-line leaderboards—without a way to compete with others for the top score (which, ironically, was a concept first introduced by Taito’s original), what long-term value can a game like this really provide?

Nevertheless, Titan Attacks! is still fun for while it lasts, and at $0.99, it’s a painless purchase. So go blast some aliens and, one hopes, have some fun.

(Incidentally, Titan Attacks! can also be found on the PC via Steam, although it's a bit pricier.)

Thanks to bakagamer.com and Steam for the images.