As the final part of SOEDESCO and Pertroglyph’s 8-Bit trilogy is nearly upon us, its about time I put down both 8-Bit Armies and 8-Bit Hordes (which is difficult) and move on to 8-Bit Invaders.

I went on the record as saying that 8-Bit Armies was probably the most fun you can have with your pants on and I have to be honest, that fun has continued through each release across consoles from this series. The simplicity of 8-bit graphics just adds to the all-out fun and carnage that you can create within the confines of what looks like a very simple game on the surface.

From the outset in this latest installment I decided to play as the invading Alien force rather than the useless human race who are trying to defend the world from being invaded. There was just something that reminded me of the film Mars Attacks! from 1996, not to mention the Alien forces being able to speak English with the classic line ‘We come in peace’ before flattening the defending forces artillery and riflemen.

Everything in here is a nod to pretty much every single Invasion movie that has ever been released from the tripod war machines which featured in HG Wells’ War of the Worlds to the cheese which can be grated from Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks! and the invading Alien forces within. I don’t think anyone has ever been able to take those films seriously and that’s the way I look at this game. It doesn’t feel like its meant to be serious within its RTS set-up and that’s a great thing. There’s nothing in it that would ever make you want to rage quit and throw your controller across the room (not that I ever have in my (nearly) 40 years of gaming.

Then you also have the Xenodogs which reminded me of the Xenomorph in Alien. I could just imagine Ellen Ripley sitting in one of the enemy bases cowering in a corner somewhere as I sent my hordes of attackers in wiping out all the buildings and defenders.

The thing I love about these games above all else is how they have stuck to the same principle throughout. The controls are the same in each game and the idea is the same. Build up your buildings to produce hordes of Invaders and wipe out the enemy troops. As Hordes seemed to build on the original release of Armies by being able to upgrade your base, Invaders has scrapped that idea. For me it didn’t really work although it was a good idea to throw it into the mix. Invaders has gone right back to the simplicity of Armies. Set your buildings, build multiple units to speed up the production of your units after gathering loads of resources and send out 100 angry Aliens to annihilate the enemy forces, collect extra resources from crates lying around the scenery and become stronger with each level you play.

Once again, its the simplicity of the game that works so well. Starting off as a set of Indie releases, I’m not sure I would still class them as such since the releases on Steam. Again there is no storyline to the game other than at the end of every level you get a message saying the person you are looking for isn’t here which leads you on to the next level, but its an Invasion.. why would you need a storyline to it? Fans of RTS games need to leave their ideals behind when taking on any of these games. They’re far from strategic and are designed to be fun with each level taking about 15 minutes to destroy what you need to to move on, but that fun and simplicity is deceiving; turn up the difficulty level and you will know about it if you are not fully prepared being overrun in no time at all and not having any forces left to fight back.

Everything about these games have been a pleasure to play and review and Invaders continues on a tried, tested and proven basis. It’s more of the same from previous titles, but when something aint broke, don’t try to fix it.

Again, I can’t find any issues with this latest installment other than the fact that its the last of the titles for release which makes me feel slightly sad. I do however have 3 great titles to keep going back to time and time again and that’s the measure of a great game, replay action. Most will complete the games on the easiest difficulty but then go back to harder levels which is where you will unlock so much more for your forces.

Also, keeping with the tradition of my previous 2 reviews, Invaders gets a solid 10/10 as it is just way too much fun to play.

**PLEASE NOTE: AIR Entertainment were supplied with a review copy by SOEDESCO, in no way has this influenced my review**