Every Extend Extra

[Noyb]

Tried out the demo on xbox live. Trippy. One mode was almost like a puzzle game. You move around your ship with the analog stick and choose when to explode yourself to kill enemies. Enemies caught in explosions explode themselves, creating a chain that makes beats along with the music, in Rez fashion. Exploding on the song's beat gives you more points. You're invulnerable for a short time when you drop onto the field after a combo, giving you time to pick up powerups and position your next explosion. While that's going on, a timer is ticking down, so you must pick up powerups dropped by enemies to extend the time limit.

There's also a more traditional shooter part that gets fun and hectic, although the collision detection feels a bit rough around enemies, but not necessarily bullets. I'm by no means good at shmups, so don't take my word on this.

Still, seems like a cool fusion of shmups and rhythm games, similar to the fusions in Q?'s other games (Rez and Lumines*) Anyone tried the full version on PSP or XBLA? Is the full version worth a buy?

*Amplitude was erroneously on this list before the edit

[ThunderPeel2001]

Sounds intriguing!

[miffy495]

The PSP version devoured my time for quite a while back when it came out. Seeing as I'm now considering buying it again for XBLA (and probably will by week's end) can suffice for my reccommendation, I believe. Great game. Takes a little bit to really get a feel for it (though not as long as something like Space Giraffe) but once you do it's bloody great. If you've enjoyed the demo, I'd call it a definite buy. I'll be checking it out soon to see how it made the transition to 360 and if it's anywhere near as awesome I'm picking it up.

Also, minor pedantic moment here, but Amplitude was made by Harmonix (see: Guitar Hero, Frequency, Rock Band) and not Q?. And while Rez is a Mizuguchi game, it was made before Miz formed Q?. Still, I get what you mean.

[n0wak]

I think it's worth a buy but there are no Q? games that I wouldn't say that about (99 Nights doesn't exist ).

It's... quite different from the PSP game. The mechanic is the same, of course, but it plays out differently. I like it more than the PSP, actually. It's much more of a long-haul zen-like experience, like the standard modes in Lumines, than it was previously. ESPECIALLY compared to the original which was the ultimate 2 minute game, IMO.

Playing to the beat of your own music is cool but getting the proper BPM setup is a bit tedious. There is a TIMED mode so you don't have to play the game for two hours straight. There's also a standard shooter game and, of course, nice music and art direction (I'm doing a writeup about this game for my weblog).

Also, this is the only game that I have ever played in which my high score is in the TRILLIONS. Seriously. At one point, I pressed one button and scored several hundred billion points.

(And if you haven't played the FREEWARE original, do so now. It's great.)

[miffy495]

Yeah, so I caved and made the purchase. I can't know about a new Q? game without buying the bloody thing as soon as I can. One very unexpected addition was the R4: The Revenge mode. Frantic and ridiculous. Like if Miz had tried to make Asteroids or something. So crazy and surprisingly fun. The arcade mode was closer to the PSP game that I know and love, but as n0wak said, much more mellow and zen. All I miss are the boss fights. The PSP had some crazy memorable bosses. The one that was a giant morphing carousel-ish thing stands out in particular. I also kinda miss the varying skins. The one on the PSP where you're blowing up flowers and bugs always appealed for whatever reason. Of course, these could exist as you play deeper into the unlimited mode on 360 as well, as I only played unlimited in the demo before making the purchase. After buying I played R4 for a bit and then turned off the console for a while.

Still, even without skins and bosses I'd say you should check it out. Original, stylish, puzzle/action hybrids don't come along all that often, and ones of this quality even less so.

[n0wak]

PS. Here's that write-up I said I'd do: http://the-inbetween.com/2007/10/19/every-extend-extra-extreme/

(I figure since The Thumb is nothing but a weblog aggregator now, I can get away with this self-plug.)

[Ben]

Nice write-up n0wak. I love that E4’s primary game mode actually integrates a rhythm element relating to the BPM: it really substantiates the game play in a way that it didn't before and as you say moves it closer to the Kandisky-inspired experience that you find in Rez. The timed element creates a very enjoyable dialectic too as you have to balance the scoring drive with keeping the clock full. It's all very simple essentially, but it’s also (as you've pointed out) extremely addictive.

There’s really no describing Mizguchi’s game experiences in words; attempting to do so makes one either sound like a hopeless fanboy or a pretentious twat. Suffice it to say that even if you aren’t great at the game, E4 is thoroughly enjoyable, and it’s accessible enough that anyone can attain some level of visible skill.

[miffy495]

I just looked at the front page for the first time in a while and noticed that there was actually some new-er content up. I hadn't been aware of the E4 article. Thanks to the article, I now know that I can cancel a chain. Expect my scores to skyrocket in the near future as a result, with only a little resentment for the game not informing me of this itself.

[werd123]

Did anyone manage to play the freeware version of this, created by one guy before they started making this game on consoles?

[Ben]

Yes. For those who haven't - there's a link to it in n0wak's first post in this thread.

[werd123]

I actually got it off a bonus CD off a Video game Magazine (Hyper) with all these freeware games, it was to show the top 25 Freeware games of all time.

So much for "freeware" games, I think I was the only one who actually liked it around, I gave it to my friends and they thought it was too shallow.