Let's Invade!
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Richard Bayliss is a C64 programmer and musician and is well known in the scene for creating many fun filled C64 games, Richard has been running the website TND (The New Dimension) since 2000, which is a portal for all his fantastic releases. One of his latest creations is a game called Let’s Invade!, a new Space Invaders clone for the Commodore 64. Space Invaders is an arcade video game created by Tomohiro Nishikado and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally.

Let’s Invade! is a new take on this game, with some excellent new additions bringing Space Invaders into the 21st Century! First thing I do before writing about a game is play it, I have a short attention span and usually switch to playing another game very quickly. A few games have kept me entertained till the end (Mario Sunshine, Batman the Caped Crusader to name a couple) but on the whole, I’m a pick up and blast the baddies type of gamer, an Arcade Connoisseur, if you will. So a game like Space Invaders is just the type of game that keeps me entertained.

Richard’s version has some interesting new effects, one of them is moving backgrounds, this effect you may remember from the screen of Zool (Amiga) before you start playing and also on the Game Boy version of Catrap, where an image is still, while the background is moving from left to right or from the top corner to bottom corner. In the case of Let’s Invade, the gameplay is eye level while the background whizzes around, very cool and it gets even better, the backgrounds flash too!

Now I am someone that can handle all these disco effects, but I’m sure for someone who suffers from migraines, headaches or epilepsy, this game is not certainly not recommended. However there is an option to disable strobe effects before you start the game.
Music is spectacular with an awesome trancy sid playing while you concentrate on blasting away at the enemies. On the title screen you also have two options, SFX or just Music and transparent enemies or traditional full block enemies. I chose transparent enemies and music, these look way better and more futuristic, I do feel that it would have been nice to have both SFX and music together, although I assume space was more than likely a limitation as this game has a whopping 40 levels! My first play I manage to rack up just over 21,000 points, not too shabby, I found the game pretty easy although I am sure this isn’t the case as you progress much further into later levels. Gameplay is fast paced and super smooth with no slow down issues at all. Overall this is everything you would expect from Space Invaders and much more, excellent work Richard, a great game I will be playing for many more weeks to come ;)


http://www.vintageisthenewold.com/lets-invade-a-new-take-on-space-invaders-for-the-commodore-64-by-richard-bayliss-tnd/
