A peculiar one, this. Your ship, positioned at the foot of the screen Space Invaders style, blasts out bullets like a water sprinkler with attitude for as long as your stylus is on the touchscreen. You can move your ship from side to side to dodge the flak thrown around by the enemy, who occupy the top screen, and aim your shots by moving the stylus – you’re not limited to upward-firing bullets like the Space Invaders and Galaxian outings of yesteryear. Naturally, the aim of the game is to get them before they get you…
There’s nothing particularly sophisticated about Earth Invaders, but sophistication is not the aim of the game. Instead, it’s a brain-off, button-down blaster which makes good use of the host machine’s two screens, and has a fair crack at doing something original with the touchscreen. Three modes are on offer, namely Normal Mode, Survival Mode and Blaster Survival, but there’s not a great deal of difference between them.
Where Earth Invaders really scores is in its slick presentation. The graphics are crisp, colourful and exciting, the background music fits the game really well and the whole package is put together with a professionalism rarely seen in home brew titles. This young coding duo could go far…
Above: Home brew is alive and well, just observe this screen if you don't believe me!
Above: A more polished graphic look
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Breakout DS The arcade classic finds its way on to the Nintendo DS thanks to Max Media Player. |
DSokoban Clever treasure puzzle game with puzzles ranging from easy-peasy to tricky enough to make you pull your hair out in frustration. |
DSudoku The pen-and-paper classic comes to the DS, and the developer has put a great deal of effort into turning it into a videogame. |
Earth Invaders Positioned at the foot of the screen Space Invaders style, You blasts out bullets with attitude for as long as your stylus is on the touchscreen. |
Super Snake DS Guide your roving reptile around the screen, eating the fruit and food scattered around the playing area. |
Warrior Training an interesting mix of game styles. |
AMAP4DS A map of the London Underground is always a handy thing to have when visiting the capital. This is the Nintendo DS version. |
Stringy Things DS Stringy Things DS is a compendium of word games. |
Minesweeper DS Fans of classic gaming will soon be able to play it on the move. |
DDRlite It does what it says on the tin, with no real surprises. |
Battleship Now here’s a game worth playing! A fair old rendition of the classic pencil-and-paper offering. |
Memory What can you say about Memory that isn’t obvious from the screenshots? |
Tic Tac Toe This one’s Noughts and Crosses on the DS. |
Prohibition Interesting – an Amstrad CPC game brought to the DS in an unofficial conversion. |
Joggle DS It’s daunting at first, but as you sit and think, all sorts of words present themselves. |
PaddleBattleDS Now here’s a text-book example of how to make good use of the touchscreen and create a game which could only have appeared on the DS. |