The early-mid 2000s were a fascinating (and scary) time for arcade games. There was no real space for them anymore, as audiences almost universally saw them as dated and quaint compared to the longer, more complex games you could find on home consoles by then, so they had three options: re-releases through collections, trying their luck on the GBA, or the dreaded reboots. Space Raiders takes the latter, and has it even harder than most games of that time (Altered Beast, Final Fight Streetwise, Maximo, just to name a few) because there just isn't much to take from its original inspiration. Despite that, Space Raiders is actually more faithful to Space Invaders than it probably should've been.
The concept of taking Space Invaders and putting it in the context of controlling a human character who is shooting with their guns at aliens in (mostly) urban settings is really bizarre, but the actual gameplay is pretty much beefed up Space Invaders: you move only left or right, you dodge the enemies that are coming at you, you shoot them. There's some things that spice it up a bit, like having power-ups, bosses, and a somewhat interesting combo mechanic, but this is pretty much the game. It lasts about 90 minutes if even that, 99% of the story is thankfully just in the intro video, and the game does its job competently enough to be entertaining for as long as it lasts. Its original release in Japan as a Simple 2000 game (if you don't know what these are, please look them up, you'll discover a whole new world) explains its very barebones gameplay and content, but the game is so simplistic and barebones that there isn't much reason to go back to it once finished, if anything towards the end it actually feels like it's dragging, which is obviously not a good thing for a 90 minute long game.
Would I recommend Space Raiders? Kinda, I guess. If you're into arcade games this is inoffensive, but the main reason to check this one out would be for its bizarre existence alone. It's not as bad as a Bomberman Act Zero and it's not as pointless as a Prince of Persia 2008, so by the standards of videogame reboots this one might actually be in the better half of them, as sad as that is.
The concept of taking Space Invaders and putting it in the context of controlling a human character who is shooting with their guns at aliens in (mostly) urban settings is really bizarre, but the actual gameplay is pretty much beefed up Space Invaders: you move only left or right, you dodge the enemies that are coming at you, you shoot them. There's some things that spice it up a bit, like having power-ups, bosses, and a somewhat interesting combo mechanic, but this is pretty much the game. It lasts about 90 minutes if even that, 99% of the story is thankfully just in the intro video, and the game does its job competently enough to be entertaining for as long as it lasts. Its original release in Japan as a Simple 2000 game (if you don't know what these are, please look them up, you'll discover a whole new world) explains its very barebones gameplay and content, but the game is so simplistic and barebones that there isn't much reason to go back to it once finished, if anything towards the end it actually feels like it's dragging, which is obviously not a good thing for a 90 minute long game.
Would I recommend Space Raiders? Kinda, I guess. If you're into arcade games this is inoffensive, but the main reason to check this one out would be for its bizarre existence alone. It's not as bad as a Bomberman Act Zero and it's not as pointless as a Prince of Persia 2008, so by the standards of videogame reboots this one might actually be in the better half of them, as sad as that is.
Reviewed on Apr 27, 2021