Decimation X3
August 6, 2011 7 Comments
Xona Games’ originally challenged me to review Score Rush, but after consulting Jason Doucette of Xona and my boyfriend Brian, they both agreed that it would be a bad choice. I have epilepsy and unless they need help with their Jiffy Pop, sending me into a fit would not be very helpful to any party. So Jason altered the challenge to Decimation X3, a clone of Space Invaders Extreme, instead of the seizure-inducing nightmare they originally wanted to inflict upon me. “Oy, bad call on your part” I thought. I loved Space Invaders Extreme. It ranks very high on my favorite portable games of all time list. Asking me to play a lift of it seemed like the dumbest idea since adding Rallycross to the X-Games.
Decimation X3 is indeed a shameless rip-off of Space Invaders Extreme through and through. The biggest difference is that it’s skinned to seem more like a retro game. It looks like it plays on a colorized dot-matrix display, a graphics style that actually works really well. The characters are distinctive and bullets stick out just enough that you can clearly see and avoid them. The controls are really well done too. Given how many bullets rain down on you, precise movement was an absolute must-have. And Xona Games nailed it.
So Decimation X3 went all kelpto on one of my favorite games and this review should be my shot at revenge. Nope. I absolutely loved it. In fact, in some ways its even better than Space Invaders Extreme. It’s cleaner for one thing, so losing track of what’s happening isn’t an issue here like it was with its inspiration. I think the controls are even tighter too. It does enter bullet hell territory at times but it always seemed like there was just enough room for me to squeeze through, no matter how heavy the fire. All the power-ups are well implemented too. In a lot of ways, it’s the perfect one-dollar game.
But there are a couple very glaring flaws, like the lack of online play or online leaderboards. The real Space Invaders Extreme is only 800MSP on the Live Arcade market, and it has those features, along with achievements. Obviously it’s the game to get. If Decimation X3 had offered either of those, it likely would have been #1 on the top ten list here. As far as knock-offs go, Decimation X3 is the best I’ve seen yet, and I do highly recommend purchasing it. Make it Dollar Tree party! Grab three friends and enjoy your off-brand cola and near-expired cans of SpaghettiOs while jamming on the best ripoff of a good thing since Pixar stole Doc Hollywood and called it Cars.
Decimation X3 was developed by Xona Games
80 Microsoft Points played with themselves (and didn’t do anywhere near that good) in the making of this review.
Love the review!! Thanks!
I want to make one fact clear: Decimation X3 is not a clone / inspiration / knock off of Space Invaders Extreme. Not in any way. Not even remotely. The original Decimation X game ( http://jasondoucette.com/games.html ) was developed in 1997, a full 12 years before Space Invaders Extreme.
Decimation X series is inspired by TI Invaders, which is a clone of the original Space Invaders. (TI Invaders was made 3 years after than the original, but it was — by far — the best clone ever made, even better than the original. It had new invaders giving the feeling of level progress and bonus levels.) Decimation X series is TI Invaders on crack / steroids / red bull. It’s the same basic gallery shooter with ideas from TI Invaders, but the gameplay elements are original: bullet rain, precise motion, small hit box, crazy particles, many different power-ups, constant rain of power-ups, icon showers, multi-layer shields, etc. Reviews On The Run mentioned two things they’ve never seen before in any game; not bad for a genre impossible to innovate within. The original 1997 game even had 4-player co-op, making it a first.
Also Decimation X costs 10% the price of Space Invaders Extreme. You can buy 10 copies for a single copy of Extreme. And it’s more fun.
We really want true Leaderboard and Achievements, but Microsoft denies this. We need to yell and ask for this:
http://trueachievements.com/n4355/xbox-live-indie-games-should-gain-achievements.htm
I agree online play would absolutely rock. The gameplay was designed with co-op in mind from the get go, so you should definitely try local co-op. P.S. Use the bumpers to slowdown.
Noted. But having never played any of the previous installments, you’ll forgive me for saying that Decimation X3 sure seems like it’s trying to ape the style POPULARIZED by Space Invaders Extreme, even if one predates the other, I never heard of it until just now.
Of course I’ll forgive you! It’s unfortunate, but we all do this. People do the same with movies. Score Rush is claimed to be a Geometry Wars clone, despite that it’s bullet hell vs. Geometry Wars with no bullet dodging. They are not even remotely the same. But it’s a fact of like, and we should have avoided the obvious references in Score Rush to other popular titles to avoid the inevitable comparisons.
Space Invaders Extreme is just one guy’s thoughts on how to make a new-age Space Invaders. Decimation X3 is another guy’s thoughts on a new-age gallery shooter. Either one of us could have been hired by Taito; neither one of us designed Space Invaders, or had anything remotely to do with it. We each implemented our own style of gallery shooter. Mine came 12 years before his, but it doesn’t matter: it’s my style, and neither of us copied the other. It’s just our styles.
I forgot the one key aspect of Decimation X3′s originality: Massive firepower. And if ANYTHING inspired this, it was Raiden II. The inspiration came from gameplay of other amazing shmups, not from the ubiquitous boring gallery shooter setting (i.e. essentially every Space Invaders clone ever made).
Anyways, GREAT review. Thank you. I’m really wishing you could try Score Rush. I know you’ll like it, but I’m more interested in hearing what can be improved. Maybe it needs a sensitivity option to allow everyone to play it so that you can give it a shot.
Decimation X, Decimation X3…surely the games I have played the most. But now, about DeciX3 I just reached 10 Million (in Challenge No Shields mode) and difficult to do more (for me lol)
Good review for a good game !
@Jason : Are you working in another XBLIG game ? (or now just focusing your efforts on DZF?)
Thanks
Hi Sined!
I am currently working on porting Score Rush to the new Turbulenz platform, so that people will be able to play it in their browsers, hopefully at the full 60 fps, HD quality (1280×720) that you get on the Xbox 360, and this will have Leaderboard / Achievement-style elements.
After that, it’s back to Duality ZF for release on XBLA and Steam, but that path depends on the will of others, so I cannot say for certain.
Take care,
Jason
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