Page 34 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #8

Shovelware alert!

Astro Invaders!!

By Chris Cavanaugh

If you blinked, you may have missed this one. If you
didn’t, you may have wished you had. Not to be
confused with Stern's classic coin-op Astro Invader,
this Nintendo DS shoot-em-up from Zoo Games
attempts to replicate the frantic, fixed-screen action
found in Asteroids and Robotron: 2084 with
disastrous results.

Space pirates have taken over your sector of the
galaxy for the purpose of stealing vital resources,
and you're the last line of defense. Your top-down
fighter's movement is controlled by the directional
pad, while the stylus is used to shoot in every
direction. Destroying enemies earns you coins that
can be used to purchase various ship upgrades, but
firepower is limited to generic choices such as
"smart bombs" and involves stumbling through an
unintuitive interface.

Astro Invaders' controls are clunky, and it is easy to
lose track of the ship due to its ability to seamlessly
blend in with enemies and environment alike. Yet
the game's biggest fault is its claustrophobic level
design. Drab, fuzzy ships take up valuable onscreen
real estate, creating a playfield that not only is
frustrating to negotiate, but also severely confining.
Cut-scene and menu images are laughably bad and
are reminiscent of a Photoshop user's unrestrained
joy while discovering its “watercolor” effect for the
first time.

Astro Invaders might have fared better as either a
side- or vertical-scrolling shooter, with the goal of
defending a large sector of space instead of being
limited to a single, cluttered screen. While the
game's retro theme and box art suggest the
publisher was hoping to appeal to classic gamers,
there's no reason why you should be spending any
time on this shovelware when the superior
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is available.

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