Other times, you face a special round of enemies on the top screen (shooting around the enemies on the bottom screen accurately without getting killed is an art form). Successfully completing these challenges earns you "Fever Time" and "Super Fever Time," in which you get to use a power-up for an extended period of time. This is a great way to rack up some serious points. Thanks to all these bells and whistles, Space Invaders Extreme 2 is not just a twitchy shooter, but rather a cerebral exercise that demands thought and planning in addition to fast reflexes.

The game doesn't even stop at one of the best single-player experiences in recent memory. You can play against a friend with one or two cartridges, or online, and you can play against computer opponents. The multiplayer game isn't nearly as vast as the one-player experience; you just fend off waves of enemies as quickly as possible. When you do well, your opponent gets more enemies or even a mini-boss. Still, it's reasonably fun and a nice change.

We have only a few small complaints about the game as a whole. There's no turbo-fire button, so you have to keep hammering the fire buttons over and over again. Also, some of the stages and boss fights in the Normal difficulty are a little harder and cheaper than we'd have liked, though casual gamers can always stick to the "A" stages or even the Beginner difficulty.

Still, any game that can be enjoyed on so many levels is a real treasure. Space Invaders Extreme 2 is perfect for kids who like shooting things, adults looking to blow off steam in short bursts, and serious gamers who want to learn a complicated scoring system and test the limits of their abilities. Somehow, the developers wrung all this out of a simplistic 30-year-old game that hasn't stood the test of time. That is a true accomplishment, and at $20 purchasing this title is a no-brainer.

By Robert VerBruggen
CCC Freelance Writer