samskivert: Stupid Invaders – Dreamcast (2)

13 August 2001

Five not so bright aliens crash land on Earth and you have to help them repair their ship and get back on their way. Meanwhile, an evil scientist discovers their presence and sends a hit man to bring them to him dead or alive. The game feels at times like a not very funny episode of Ren and Stimpy. The visuals are gorgeous, but the humor rarely elicits more than a chuckle and the “adventure” part of the game is about as complicated as microwaving popcorn. There’s one good puzzle in the whole game and a whole bunch of pointless ones that are only challenging because moving the pointer around the screen with the Dreamcast controller is slow and thus you tend to miss mousing over things that you could have picked up. Fortunately, the game is mercifully short and the amount of pointless wandering back and forth is kept to a tolerable level. The 3D models and artwork were obviously a labor of love, if only someone could have been as excited about the game play this might have been a great game.

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