Every Extend Extra

Title:

Every Extend Extra (PSP)

Publisher:

Disney Interactive

ASIN:

B000JXNRVM

Rating:

Not rated

Freeware title Every Extend presents a compellingly radical mechanic. The player controls a ship whose sole attack is self destruction. Random arrangements of explosive blocks float across the screen, and the player’s aim with each ‘suicide’ is to trigger a chain reaction that will score enough points for her be awarded at least one extra life. It’s a cunning system that draws attention videogaming’s necessary concession against reality of repeatedly resurrecting the player’s avatar. Peppering play are two key collectable items. Quickens increase the speed of the blocks and the rate at which they appear from the screen’s edges, which in turn increases the potential for creating massive chain reactions. Time Extensions, yielded by projectile firing mini-bosses, add ten seconds to the initial minute and a half the player is given to rack up points before the game’s boss appears. The player then has around one minute to defeat this boss which will take damage in proportion to the length of the explosion chain causing it.

The first play of this game could be cause for disappointment. Its space shooter styling and two-part level/boss structure imply multiple stages with new enemy types and power-ups, but in barely three minutes Every Extend will have revealed almost all the content it has to offer. But further plays make it apparent that this isn’t miserliness but generosity. Play for high scores, and in return for a few minutes of your time Every Extend offers a thrilling and addictive experience. By constraining play to such a short period, players are forced to closely examine and correct the flaws in their performance, eventually achieving a feeling of mastery over the game’s space – deftly collecting items from the tightest of gaps between blocks, precisely predicting how explosions will cascade, developing reliable intuition for when to detonate and when to wait for a more rewarding opportunity. This is hardcore gaming condensed for the casual gaming audience. This is what Q Entertainment ignore in their PSP update, Every Extend Extra.

The initial disappointment is addressed head-on by giving the game a number of stages, each with its own visual and audio style. While each is remarkably pretty, new skins do not provide a satisfying reason to progress though the game, and unfortunately nor do the minor variations in the gameplay that occur from stage to stage. Dividing the game in this way serves mainly to encourage the player to focus on mere completion rather than refinement, which is at odds with how this game should be enjoyed. Another damaging change is the details of how the player is penalized for losing their ship to a collision with a block. In the original a five second time penalty is incurred. This has a definite effect on the final score and so provides a strong incentive for one more go to try to avoid such a mistake. In Extra, the player loses her Quickens and has them scattered about her ship where they can be collected again. On paper this is a skilful piece of design, an implementation of adaptive difficulty (allowing the player to ramp up the speed of the game but bailing them out if it’s too fast to handle) that does not rely on hidden or ill-fitting logic and isn’t open to cynical exploitation. In practice though the panic caused by trying to rapidly recollect the Quickens often leads to further losses, giving the game a frustrating staccato rhythm.

However, not all the changes in Extra fall flat. The ability to charge-up the ship’s death throe explosion, though at first appears to require powers of premonition to exploit, encourages a greater degree of forethought and offers a further path of development for players wanting to raise their game. On balance there are enough positive changes to make Extra worthwhile, even for those who have already mastered its inspiration. It is hard to shake the feeling though that Every Extend’s concept has been less respected and improved than simply commandeered to support a PSP-flaunting lightshow.

Bryan Gale : 27 Apr 2007 18:27 |  Tags: Boar Game Review |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem