Stupid Invaders Review

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Stupid Invaders

Review by Jen

At the May 2000 E3, Stupid Invaders was hands-down the best-looking, most promising game that I saw. Does Stupid Invaders live up to its rich promise? It depends. Do you snicker when someone burps? Do you suffer paroxysms of glee when someone farts?  If you answer “yes,” then Stupid Invaders is probably your kind of game. If you’re ultra-sophisticated, though, you’re probably better off looking down your nose at the rest of us who think this stuff is funny.

This is not to say that Stupid Invaders consists of nothing but jokes related to the by-products of digestion—in fact there really is some more subtle and highbrow humor too: movie and literature spoofs abound. Yeah, that’s it, that’s the ticket.  … See? I really don’t lack class just because I thought Stupid Invaders was the funniest game ever.

Stupid Invaders begins with five aliens (with six heads) crash-landing on Earth: Bud, Etno, Stereo, Gorgious, and Candy.  They take up residence in an abandoned house while waiting for Etno to repair the flying saucer so they can return home. Meanwhile, deep in a remote area of the desert known only as (insert anticipation-building music here) Area 52, hidden away in a secret laboratory, the mad scientist Dr. Sakarine is plotting to capture the aliens so he can do some vivisection experiments on them. And it’s not sex change operations (much to Candy’s dismay)! Dr. Sakarine sends his henchman, Bolok, out to capture the aliens and their ship.  Bolok shows up at the house where the aliens are staying just as Etno puts the finishing touches on the spaceship repair. Only by sheer luck, and TV addiction, does Bud escape Bolok’s fearsome ice gun. As you can probably guess, Bud must then free his compatriots if they are to have any hope of going home again. The game then plays out over four chapters, and umpteen million locations, and each alien gets multiple turns at being the main character (“hero,” if you will).

Gameplay is straightforward—Stupid Invaders is point-and-click at its finest. You must use the keyboard to access inventory (space bar), load, save, and quit. All movement and object and character interaction is via the mouse. The cursor action automatically changes according to the situation, although once or twice during the game you must change it yourself using a right click. Puzzles are all organic, every last mother-lovin’ one of them, and they range from easy to fairly challenging. The game is completely linear; you must perform certain actions in a certain order to progress. There are lots of unnecessary things you can see and do in the game, and half of the game’s entertainment value is found by looking at these things and trying them.

There is a lot of dying in Stupid Invaders. In an absolute first for me, though, I actually didn’t mind dying. In fact, I saved lots and then sought out all the ways to die because the death scenes are almost without exception spectacular. Or if not spectacular, at least funny.

There is one gigantic drawback that bears mention, a maze! And what a horrendous maze it is! And then there’s another gigantic drawback, a desert! And what a horrendous desert it is! I nearly went bald pulling my hair out over these two things, but you won’t need any Rogaine because I thoughtfully provided solutions for these in my walkthrough.

The graphics in Stupid Invaders are, quite simply, the best I’ve ever seen in any cartoon game. The transitions between cut scenes and game screens are seamless; the only way you can tell which is which is by whether you have a cursor. The animation is movie-quality, even on the gameplay screens. The use of color is perfect in every instance, the graphic design is stunning and evocative, camera angles are positively cinematic. As you can see, I got a little carried away with screenshots; I would’ve liked to show you the whole game but you’ll just have to play it and see for yourself how consistently good it looks.

The voice acting is not only above average for an adventure game, it is exceptional. You can tell these are professional actors.  Every character is brought to life by his/her/its voice actor, be he/she/it sinister, dumb, snooty, or what have you. Same goes for the sound effects and music—they rival anything ever put out by the movie moguls in Hollywood.

Stupid Invaders is fun and funny, a masterful blend of high art and low humor. (I am glad that computer-generated odors are not yet a reality.) It is my new favorite game of all-time, displacing even The Longest Journey and Grim Fandango.  I am, however, left with this scary thought: if I actually enjoyed this French humor so much, does that mean I have to start liking Jerry Lewis? Nooo! I would rather die! The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Xilam Publisher: Ubisoft Release Date: January 2001 Available for: DreamcastWindows

Four Fat Chicks Links

WalkthroughPlayer FeedbackInterview with Designer

Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

Minimum: Pentium 200 32 MB RAM SVGA

Recommended: Pentium II 233 64 MB RAM SVGA 8 MB

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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17 Responses to First Impressions: Heavy Rain

  • Toger

    I hate QTEs, but Heavy Rain is sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for me to push the button. I don’t even own a PS3, but I plan on buying the game anyway. I do have a good friend who’ll let me play at his house. Of course, I’ll have to drive 100 miles, one way, through the snow to get to his house. His chat-happy birds will cheerfully chirp thereby completely disrupting any atmosphere, but I can play.

  • David

    What!?  Heavy Rain is full of QTEs?  I totally did not see that coming.

    The whole dad experience thing sounds intriguing.  I’m already getting odd looks from my girlfriend for exclaiming over cute kids on the bus or at the mall, something like what you described might send my biological clock over the edge.

  • Lewis B

    My sentiments exactly David!

    Mat has been playing the Heavy Rain demo for a while now, and although he admits he is intrigued by the story, he does constantly complain about the control method.

    R2 + Analogue stick to run? *scoff*

  • Gregg B

    @Lew: DEMO?! PS3 DEMO?! *runs off to PS3*

    That sounds like the Batman: Arkham Asylum controls – Crazy Bonkers Design. The sort of design that puts pull handles on push doors.

    @Steerpike: “I despise children. They are disgusting and annoying. They knock things over. They interfere with everything. They’re not useful until they’re at least 13, when you can get them to mow the lawn and stuff. But you can pay a service to do that for just a few hundred bucks a year and the service won’t vomit on you, shit in its diapers, grow up to resent you, or otherwise suck. Don’t flame me and don’t post comments to the contrary: kids are repulsive. Why anyone would want them is beyond my feeble imaginings.”

    HAHAhahaha- I er, – hahahaha – you’re as outspoken as me about demon spawn children.

  • Lewis B

    Yeah its been on the internet for weeks and weeks Greggi.  I think you have to do a couple of online puzzles etc to get the appropriate code or something.

    Search on Kotaku, they first ran with it IIRC.

  • Mat

    The puzzle code was for early access before it hit the PSN Store. It’s been available to all since last week.

    Regarding the demo, it took me around 3 or 4 attempts at it to appreciate it. First time around I couldn’t have been more dissapointed by it, but after the 3rd or 4th I decided I wanted to stick with it. I don’t think the demo is a particularly great example of what the game supposedly does best either – choice. I also HATE the control scheme and some of the voice acting is so wooden. Creating an immersive, realistic game is fine but having characters stumbling into tables and fridges because of the ham fisted controls, and listening to French voice actors impersonate Americans does remove that realism a little!

    Still, I rushed out to buy it this morning and will rush home from work to play it in about an hour!

  • xtal

    @ Toger: I don’t own a PS3 either, and it’s not like Heavy Rain seems to be “that” game which makes you run out and buy one– like Bioshock made me run out and get a 360– and it’s also not like this game looks groundbreaking in any way, because it really doesn’t. It’s just got me curious…and people tend to do crazy things the week after they get their yearly bonus. Soooooo yeah, who knows; maybe I’ll own a PS3 soon, but like hell I would admit that it was for Heavy Rain. Psh. I’d tell people it was because I wanted to watch BSG on blu-ray; though anyone who knows me would see right through that lie since I am an avid non-format-upgrader: I’ll switch my BSG collection from DVD to blu-ray the day I upgrade my copy of Jurassic Park from VHS to DVD. (Hint: never)

  • Toger

    @xtal: I’m in no hurry to upgrade my meagre DVD collection to blu-ray either, but I have to say the movies I’ve watched on my friend’s PS3 are absolutely stunning. Blade Runner was simply breath-taking in blu-ray and it made me want a PS3. I don’t think Heavy Rain will be a system seller for me, but I’m betting the game from the Ico team will.

  • xtal

    A game from the Ico team, you say? Hmmm. I’ve been making rounds on Kijiji and Craigslist looking for a copy of Ico (eBay prices are so shudder-inducing) for a few days now. I really need to play that game after my experience with the indescribable Shadow of the Colossus.

    It’s good to know they haven’t died some Interplay-esque death in the meantime.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Nope, they’re a small team that works within Sony. Fumito Ueda is the lead and he’s got like ten or so people who’ve worked with him on all his games. Sony pretty much lets them do what they want.

    The Last Guardian is the game that’s coming up from them. It looks more like Ico and less like Shadow of the Colossus to me, which is to say it appears to be focused on platform elements. If I didn’t already have a PS3, it’d be the game that sells it.

  • Gregg B

    @Toger: Ooh, Blade Runner on Blu-ray, gorgeous in all its gorgeosity. In 5.1 it sounds incredible too.

    I bought my PS3 for Team Ico’s unnamed-at-the-time game, Heavy Rain (back when it was just a teaser), LittleBig Planet (yes, yes, I know), Dead Space and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift which sort of pushed me off the fence.

  • Toger

    Gregg, oh yes. The surround sound was spectacular. Did I mention my friend’s HDTV is 72″ (obscene, isn’t it)? It’s like being at a high-class theatre: better food, pauses for bathroom breaks and no one talking through the movie.

    Is Trine up on PSN, yet? If so, that might be my tipping point: Last Guardian, Heavy Rain and Trine.

  • Gregg B

    *spits tea out, despite not drinking any*

    O_O

    72″?! I’m speechless. I can only imagine how awesome that is. Size does matter.

    Not so sure about Trine… hang on. I think it is.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I think it is too, Toger. I’ll check.

    To be honest, though, I doubt you’d be disappointed with the purchase even if Trine’s not there yet. I’ve been way happier with my PS3 than with my 360. Demon’s Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted, Folklore, even little games like Flower – I’ve had more concentrated fun with the PS3 than with Microsoft’s console, which tends to gather dust for months between game releases.

    72″???? I thought size didn’t matter!

  • Toger

    Size doesn’t matter. 😀

    In my friend’s defense, it was a great deal: opened box, itty-bitty scratch on the case, not a dead pixel to be seen and it was less $$ than the 60″ he originally wanted.

    Thanks for checking guys. I’ve played a tiny bit of Uncharted, but I’m horrible at the combat. Flower intrigues me. As does Demon’s Souls, but I know that game will crush my soul.

  • Gregg B

    There were certain moments in Flower where it just totally succeeded in conveying a feeling that I can’t say I’ve had in many other games, usually when rushing across a field through the grass or through a canyon or just skimming a pond, but it was never anything to do with collecting bloody petals or fulfilling some rudimentary puzzle. I think my problem with it was that it felt like it was trying to be this deeply emotional piece but in the end there seemed to be too many concessions to being a game rather than just running with the emotive side of the experience. One thing I am sure about though, is the trophies. Don’t get me started on the fucking trophies…

    One of my favourite little games on the PS3 is Everyday Shooter. It’s got a brilliant soundtrack that suits its raw visual style and I love how each level requires a certain tactic or strategy to survive it. It’s a very satisfying game in small bursts.

  • Hanover

    Unfortunately Cage mucked up the ending yet again.  The problem is that the mechanic of the game forced them to have to cheat in order to prevent spoiling the mystery of the game.

    There is also a red herring that makes no sense and is obviously put there to misdirect the player.

    90% of the game is awesome, the last 10% while not as bad as the indigo prophecy, is still sloppy.

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