A fast and fluid shooter with plenty of replay value.
The game is a shoot 'em up, or shmup, just like its ancestors, but has been modernized to a great degree. The gameplay is exceptionally fluid, with enemies teleporting and flying around in patterns that always seem different.
There are four game modes: Normal, Bonus, Challenge, and Music. Normal mode is the main mode, and consists of 30 stages across 5 levels. While the levels start off simple and short (the very first stage, "Stage 0," is identical to the 1978 version), they gradually become longer and more difficult as the game "evolves." Along the way, you have an experience-like bar that fills up at the end of every level, making the points you collect almost like XP points. With each fill up, you are granted an Evolution, such as new weapon types and gameplay functions (like free movement). While it's a great idea, it quickly loses steam, as eventually you will only be unlocking music tracks, but this is hardly a bad thing. While there is no narrative or story present, Normal Mode nonetheless feels like a cohesive experience, and actually has a good ending. By the end of the game, it feels like a commentary on the nature of video games and how they change over time.
The Bonus mode features 12 additional stages with different designs than the normal stages. Challenge mode is made up 99 constantly changing levels, providing you with an endless number of stages.
The Music mode designs levels based on music tracks. While it can make some fun levels, the mode suffers from a couple illogical design choices. First off, these stages usually end with a boss, but after the song has ended. The song then loops until you finish the stage. While this may not seem like a huge issue, it certainly bugs me and detracts from the experience. Another strange design choice is that the game only plays Playlist files, and even then only the first song on the playlist. So if you wanted to make your entire music collection available, you would first have make a playlist of every individual song. It would have been much better if the game played individual tracks, since it only plays the first song of the playlist anyway.
The graphics of the game are interesting, and uses many of the sprites from the original game. This, combined with the new and wacky enemies, makes for a very distinctive visual theme. The backgrounds are simple and usually consist of geometric shapes on a gradient, and sometimes even a music visualizer. While it uses 2D sprites and simple geometric shapes, the graphics never look dated. The soundtrack is another high point, and features a variety of catchy, industrial-inspired electronica that is great to listen to even when not playing the game.
At 800 MSP, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a great game and comes with plenty of replay value. And for those looking for a real challenge, the game features 5 difficulty modes, with the harder ones turning the game into a genuine bullet hell. It is a strange and quirky shooter sure to please any fan of the genre.