Ps Plus Collection: Titan Attacks! (December 2014)

Playstation Plus Collection is an ongoing series where I give my first impression of all of the games that are made available each month through Playstation plus. Typically, there are around four free games per month, and so one shall be covered each week. At the end of each month I shall give an overall verdict of the worth of Playstation plus for that particular month.

You can imagine my excitement last week when I went on the Playstation store and found none other than Space Invaders waiting for me in the PS plus members area. I felt like a kid in a 1980’s candy store which doubles as an arcade. But once I wiped the nostalgia out of my eyes, I realised what actually was there was Titan Attacks, which admittedly sounds like a dodgy Japanese translation, in the same way that the new metal gear: Ground Zeroes sounds a bit off. Regardless, Titan Attacks is, for all intensive purposes, Space Invaders, but it is anything but a dodgy remake. 

Titan Attacks has the basic space invaders layout and format, you are a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and you go side-to-side shooting the space invaders titans as they progressively get closer and closer to the ground; the aim of the game being to eliminate all of the titans before they reach the ground.

At this point, as i would with any remake or reworking, say what this game has reinvented, so here goes: nothing. Essentially, if you have played Galaga or Space Invaders, then you have played this game, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This game has fine tuned everything while keeping it the same as the much loved originals, which is to be expected from a games company (Puppy Games) which specialises in arcade/retro games. If there is anything that I can say has changed it’d be the difficulty. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have yet to get past the third location out of five, because this game is pretty difficult. That may put some people off, but i feel the high difficulty ceiling makes it feel even more at home within this arcade realm. It wouldn’t be too profitable back in the 80’s if kid beat games on the first try and never spent all that money trying again and again, would it now?

If you choose to play this game then you know what you’re getting yourself in for: 80’s, neon, aliens, and a frustrating time (in a good way of course). Personally, this isn’t the type of game that would keep me coming back every day on my PS4, but then again this isn’t the 80’s and there are other games which are better suited to the gaming culture at the moment. But if you’re looking to have a fleeting nostalgic moment – grab your all leather outfit, put on the breakfast club soundtrack, and give this game a go.

Conor M.