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Music Invaders (iOs) Review

 
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At a Glance...
 

Formats: iOs
 
Genre: ,
 
Year:
 
Developer:
 
Final Score
6.0
6/ 10


User Rating
no ratings yet

 

We liked?


Fun retro feel with tailored to you tunes.

Not so much?


Doesn't work as well as it should.


Final Fiendish Findings?

Music Invaders takes an old standard and adds a little modern fun to the mix. The classic retro ships and familiar gameplay will have you reliving your Space Invaders glory days, while the sweet music keeps you rockin’ along to the space madness. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t always work just like it should with music selection, and the controls aren’t as responsive as they should be. Still, Music Invaders is an enjoyable way to spend some time, and worth a look just for the walk down memory lane.

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Posted February 5, 2013 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

Hostile forces must be destroyed….to a kicking beat.

Music Invaders is an app from Starsheep Interactive that hopes to bring Space Invaders back into style. Of course, if it was just like its retro inspiration, you’d just play Space Invaders and call it a happy day, so there has to be some sort of innovation, some sort of hook, for the game to stand out. For Music Invaders, that hook is the music. Whether you’re a fan of country or rock roll, hip hop or jazz, teen pop of soulful blues, I can guarantee that you will love the music in this game. Why? Because it’s your music.

Like Cold Beam Games’ popular app, Beat Hazard, Music Invaders uses your song lists in the game – and not just as sweet background music, either. The songs you choose will affect how the game plays, because the enemy ship are affected by the rate of the music. This means you’ll get a different experience from Kenny G than Beastie Boys, but not enough so that it will likely affect your choice of tunes. Instead, the feature adds a bit of variety, with the added benefit of a great  soundtrack.

As you might have guessed, Music Invaders is very much like Space Invaders. You pilot a low tech ship at the bottom of the screen, and you shoot a variety of very retro looking enemy space ships as you fly through the air. For the most part, flying of the ship is done for you. You have no control over the rate of speed, nor can you stop. You do have the ability to move the ship from side to side on the screen using the tilt feature on your device. It isn’t always super responsive, but the playing field is quite small, so it’s generally enough to either get you out of the way of oncoming enemies, or get in front of them to take them out.

Taking out your enemies is as simple shooting them before they shoot you. You have two tools at your disposal in Music Invaders: a shield and a gun. The shield shows up as a round force filed around your ship, and any enemy ships that come in contact with it will be destroyed. However, you need to limit your use of the shield to when you need it, as it runs out, and it takes a while to recharge.

You also have a gun on your ship, which is pretty junky at first, shooting one shot quite slowly. You can get marginally better weapons, but overall it sticks to the Space Invaders feel with low tech retro shooting. The idea here is your skill, not necessarily the size of your weapons. Both the gun and shield are controlled by virtual buttons in the left and right corners of the screen, and that actually works quite well with the tilt controls for your ship.

In addition to playing to your own music, Music Invaders has an arcade mode. This uses a stock background music (which is actually pretty decent), but gives you the opportunity to choose from different levels, some of which will need to be unlocked first. It is good for some retro fun, and the levels are quite challenging. In fact, in a lot of ways, the arcade mode was a better choice, as the music mode doesn’t always work as it should. There were often issues with it freezing on the music choice screen, which would require exiting out and trying again. While this does not occur in arcade mode, the music mode is fun when it works, if only for the novelty of it.

Music Invaders takes an old standard and adds a little modern fun to the mix. The classic retro ships and familiar gameplay will have you reliving your Space Invaders glory days, while the sweet music keeps you rockin’ along to the space madness. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t always work just like it should with music selection, and the controls aren’t as responsive as they should be. Still, Music Invaders is an enjoyable way to spend some time, and worth a look just for the walk down memory lane.


Amy

 
U.S. Senior Editor & Deputy EIC, @averyzoe on Twitter, mother of 5, gamer, reader, wife to @macanthony, and all-around bad-ass (no, not really)


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