The new Space Invaders Infinity Gene is being released to the console world, and fans of the original as well as newcomers to the series will find a lot to love with this game. Those who own an iPhone were able to enjoy this title for the past year, and now the update of the retro classic is making its way onto both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

My earliest memory of Space Invaders is playing on my parents' old PC when I was a young boy. Flash forward 20+ years and I own Space Invaders Extreme and Extreme 2 on both the DS and PSP. Infinity Gene was a must buy for me when it was released for the iPhone. Can you tell I like Space Invaders?

For those of you new to the game, let me give you the rundown. The game starts off like any Space Invaders title with your small mobile cannon moving left to right taking down 8-bit aliens. About halfway through the first wave, however, the game "evolves" into something much more. Your cannon turns into a ship and the environment transforms along with it into a modern day bullet-hell shooter. Don't worry, this game is a bit more forgiving than Ikaruga or Sin & Punishment. You earn experience, gain power-ups for your weapons, and unlock new ships, each with their own special weapons. The PSN and XBLA versions retain many of the features from the iPhone version along with some unique ones special to the HD consoles. Check the list for what's new in this title.

  • Your ship, the stages, and even the game system itself evolves as you play. Watch as the game makes an amazing transformation from a 2-D to 3-D shooter.
  • Music Mode — generate stages based on music stored on your console. The music itself determines the stage that is generated!
  • Bonus Mode — unlock bonus stages as you play through the regular mode
  • All-new Challenge Mode — play 99 randomly-created stages and post your score online.
  • Unlock new weapons — three exclusive to this new version.
  • Unlock new stages for additional play.
  • Players can see where they rank during play with a real-time ranking system.

One aspect of the iPhone version was that you could turn the device on its side and play it R-Type style, so when I heard this was coming to the home consoles, I wondered how or if they were going to do this. Well the developers at Taito decided to take this 2D shooter and bring it into the third dimension, transforming the game once again by giving the player a whole new perspective and enemies new polygons. Check the trailer and screenshots below to see what I mean.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoLbnTCoNew

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Ranters are you ready to hunt down 8-bit baddies?

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is available now on PlayStation Network for $9.99 and Xbox Live Arcade for 800 MS points.