Space Invaders Gets Left in The Hood with Space Raiders, The 2002 Reboot

One of my fondest memories as a child would definitely have to be settling down in front of the television, Atari 2600 controller in hand, battling my sister and cousin for high score, and the cheesy title of Space Invader supreme overlord. I was only 8 years old, but even then I knew this was the greatest thing since the invention of roller skates. That year was 1982 and the game was already a 4 year old classic from Japan but more recently released to the United States and had already earned over 2 billion dollars worldwide. Atari 2600 mit Joystick (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now you have to remember I was only a child, financial earnings and release dates meant nothing to me. What did matter though was the hours upon hours of weekend and after school time I spent staring at that television. Blasting away at wave after wave of aliens with my high powered laser canon, destined to save the Universe and have the highest score ever. Unfortunately for me, I never met that goal, and to put it mildly it certainly burst my bubble of childhood dreams at that time in my life.
Fast forward now to the year 2002. I’m now 28 years old, it’s a new millennium, and console gaming technology is at an astounding level compared to the Atari consoles of the 1980’s. So just try and imagine the excitement I felt when I was first told there would be a Space Invaders reboot, and it would now be called Space Raiders. Suddenly I was 8 years old again and ready for that high score title shot once again. Once again my bubble was painfully burst.

Mirrored display and cardboard background of a Midway Space Invaders Deluxe arcade cabinet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was so prepared to pick up my classic laser cannon in space, aimed on stopping the alien hordes from destroying the Universe, but that wasn’t at all what I found. My beloved Space Invaders had been rebooted into a teen boy named Justin, battling hordes of aliens, in the ghetto! Don’t let me forget the other two characters Ashley, the fashion designer, and Naji, the police officer. But then why bother the mention since all three characters were only different in appearance all game play was the same between the three.

North American GameCube cover art (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My dream of becoming supreme ruler never stood a chance in this re boot, regardless of the change in scenery and hero. The once never ending classic, that would just infinitely keep attacking, had now been reduced to 6 lousy levels and if your lucky 1-2 hours of heart breaking game play. The only minuscule release from my disappointment in this game came in the form of a cheat code, unlocking the original Space Invaders arcade game. With all the technology of the time in the palm of their hands, it was really hard to swallow the fact that this is what they gave us, to replace the game that started it all for so many of us, the original hardcore gamers.

Ds Duby