Last year’s SPACE INVADERS EXTREME celebrated the 30th anniversary of Taito’s classic arcade shooter. Taito and Square Enix released this game on DS and PSP, and an XBLA version was released with extra work from Backbone Entertainment. SIE was a success on all platforms, and it had small but useful differences on each platform. What kept the gameplay...

I picked up a used PSP this week, so I spent a good portion of the past seven days experimenting with the system. Word of warning: Don’t buy a game on the account of the guy who owned it before you and then reset the settings so you can set up your own account. The first thing I did was download Castlevania: Symphony of the Night from the PSN store. I had been...

When I saw STRIKERS 1945 PLUS PORTABLE on PlayStation Network (PSP), I thought I recognized the game. It looked like a remake of any number of vertical scrolling shooters I played on my NES as a child. But apparently, I had my series names confused. The “Strikers 1945″ series, developed by Psikyo, didn’t have much exposure outside of Japan. The...

I’m generally wary when developers remake a game, or add an entry to a game’s series, by merely tacking on a buzz word like “Super” or “Extreme” and then running said franchise into the ground with lackluster improvements and game-breaking mistakes. It’s happened many, many times. But for every bad Super/Extreme/Ultimate...