Space Invaders Extreme 2 report: My God, it’s full of moe!

Remember our expose on Space Invaders Extreme 2 that revealed a strange moe figure with a ridiculous, oversized hat? Reader Jksprat investigated the phenomenon with an import copy and found that the “Invader Girl” permeated every variant of the game’s final stage! You can read Jksprat’s in-depth report below:

Stage 5-A: The first sign of things were a little fishy was when I noticed this stage had reused assets from the very first stage of the game. I got rid of most of the Invaders and took a good look at the moving cubes: a cute 8-bit Invader Girl spinning around in the cubes! … You can see her best at the upper right behind the “[bingo] lights”.

Stage 5-B: This once more reuses assets from Stage 2. The background movie is a continuously looping zooming out of 2D graphics. … Invader Girl’s head is here, and we can see her trademark ginormous hat is based on a bear.

Stage 5-C: [This] is based on both Stage 3-x.  This time it’s a little 3D model of Invader Girl spinning upwards. In Stage 5-C on Extreme difficulty (which will thoroughly emasculate anybody attempting it, by the way *cry*), it uses the Invader Girl stage again but with a slight change… ;3

Taito and Square Enix haven’t restricted the moe character to the game, either. Invader Girl appears on the cover of Zuntata’s Space Invaders Extreme 2 soundtrack released last month. Also, representatives gave out exclusive stickers of Invader Girl at Summer Comiket. The stickers featured the character without her hat… and in a bathing suit.

Space Invaders Extreme 2 releases in the U.S. this week, presumably with Invader Girl intact (stop giggling, pervs). I’m sure most of you forgot it was coming out so soon!

Buy: Space Invaders Extreme 2 ($19.99)

See also: Incredible Space Invaders Extreme 2 trailer

[Thanks, Jksprat!]

tags / space invaders / space invaders extreme / space invaders extreme 2 / moe / taito / square enix / jksprat / ec

Forgot about Space Invaders Extreme 2

How is it that Space Invaders Extreme 2, a title near universally praised by importers and the follow-up to one of last year’s finest games, has received hardly any attention leading up to its Stateside release next week?

Are gamers upset that this is a DS exclusive, while the original Space Invaders Extreme also came out for PSP and XBLA? Perhaps they skipped SIE and consider iPhone’s Space Invaders: Infinity Gene as the series’ definitive portable revival? Maybe people are just burnt out from Space Invaders’ 30th anniversary and the overload of releases/merchandise?

While I believe those issues factored into the lack of hype for the sequel, I believe it’s more to do with the fact that Taito-parent Square Enix has done nothing to promote the game in North America since last May. It wasn’t until last night, five days before it’s scheduled to ship SIE 2 to stores, that the company remembered to alert others about the game’s official U.S. site and new videos.

So, I’m doing my part to push the game by reminding you it’s priced at only $19.99 and by uploading these two fresh preview clips. Enjoy this online multiplayer bit:

Along with the new moe mascot and time attack mode, SIE2 introduces new wave patterns, backgrounds, bosses, music, and more. Fever Time segments also now take place on the top screen and run concurrent to normal gameplay. As for the new Bingo system, I still don’t understand it.

Preorder: Space Invaders Extreme 2 ($19.99)

See also: Incredible Space Invaders Extreme 2 trailer

tags / space invaders / space invaders extreme / taito / square enix / space invaders extreme 2