You remember Space Invaders, right? Pixelated bug-like things intended to represent alien ships as they march from left to right, then drop down slightly, change directions and speed up a bit, all in their plot to march down to the bottom of the screen and overrun your triangle-shaped cannon? Well, all of the above is here in its retro 8-bit glory. The graphics of the invaders and your cannon are largely untouched. There are, however, vivid and frenzied animated backgrounds that can, at times, be a bit distracting.

If you are familiar with Space Invaders Extreme, Space Invaders Extreme 2 is much the same. One thing that is new, however, is that at some points, the top screen will also feature additional invaders (often very large invaders) and your shots will continue off the top of the lower screen and onto the upper screen to shoot them, if you can manage to get your shots past the invaders on the lower screen.

The music is designed to keep the pressure on, with fast-paced music doing a good job of conveying the action on screen which is, at times, very frenetic.

Space Invaders, that most classic of retro games, is back yet again, with more twists on the theme. For anyone who missed it, as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders, Space Invaders Extreme was released. This game revisited the gameplay of Space Invaders, but added frantic, dizzying backgrounds and various different modifications to gameplay, such as chains of successive hits, the ability to "level up" your cannon, a score multiplier (Score Rate), a high-scoring temporary state that earns 10x the normal points (Break), and "Features" which are earned by shooting down invaders of certain colors in specific orders. These Features include different types of temporary weapon power-ups, a Round feature, where you attempt to accomplish certain specific objectives in a given time in order to win bonus points. Successful completion of a Round begins something called "Fever Time." During Fever Time, your cannon's power is much more powerful and bonus points are earned for invaders shot down during this time. There are a series of Lamp indicators in the background that light up when certain things are done, and when all of them are lit, a bonus is awarded. These features are reminiscent of the various score enhancements offered in most pinball games.

Space Invaders Extreme 2 has most of the same features as Space Invaders Extreme, as listed above. Additionally, there is a new Time Attack mode that challenges players to not only beat the game, but to do so quickly.

Some of the changes are a bit more subtle. For example, in order to enter a Break state in Space Invaders Extreme 2, you have to build your chain to over 100, rather than filling your multiplier to x5 and filling it again. Also, instead of merely a 10x multiplier to your score, as in Space Invaders Extreme, the multiplier is a whopping 16x in Space Invaders Extreme 2.

Overall, the differences between Space Invaders Extreme and Space Invaders Extreme 2 help to make the game more approachable, it seems, but there are still a variety of additional score-building secondary goals that die-hard players will be able to put to use, while casual players might find hard to keep track of. On one hand, this makes the game generally easy to pick up and harder to master, which is a good thing. However, there is that time where beginners will wonder what, exactly, they're supposed to do above and beyond simply shooting... a lot.

As for difficulty, there are two difficulty levels available at the beginning (Beginner and Normal), with a third difficulty level (Extreme) being made available after the game is beaten on Normal difficulty, to offer some additional challenge. I played on Normal, however, and on the Score attack, I had played a couple of games or so before I lost due to lack of ships; I was assuming that you couldn't "die out," since the few times that I had been shot, the ship was replaced and I just kept going.

There is no Practice mode in Space Invaders Extreme 2, it's just a matter of playing over and over until you've increased your personal mad skillz at killing the invaders.

Space Invaders Extreme 2 truly is a game that is Mechanics-centric. The original Space Invaders game is over 30 years old, now, so this game relies heavily on new twists in game mechanics to provide something new. This worked for Space Invaders Extreme, and I think I actually prefer Space Invaders Extreme 2 to Space Invaders Extreme, but it's really not far different enough that it stands out as a truly different game. It feels more like Space Invaders Extreme Part 1.5 or Space Invaders Extreme: Director's Cut. Even on the official Space Invaders Extreme 2 website, they point out only three improvements: an enhanced battle system, the new Time Attack mode and Super Fever Time, which is the same thing as Fever Time, but, well, bigger and more frenetic. I suggest that any gamer who likes Space Invaders should have either Space Invaders Extreme or Space Invaders Extreme 2, but not necessarily both.

If you missed Space Invaders Extreme or no longer have it, I highly recommend trying Space Invaders Extreme 2. However, unless you are a serious collector and absolutely must have everything related to Space Invaders, there just doesn't seem to be enough difference to warrant keeping both in your collection.