Space Invaders did not come easily. Creator, programmer and designer Tomohiro Nishikado - and how strange the notion of a one-man band seems in the current climate - struggled determinedly to realise the game that would give a brave new medium in imminent danger a fighting chance. He had to have development tools built from scratch and the hardware of the era didn't come close to meeting his grand ambition; even new technology developed specifically for the game couldn't give Nishikado the speed or the colour or the sound he had imagined. The scrolling planes and tanks rendered in early iterations of Space Invaders proved unsatisfactory and its creator refused to have more easily-realised humans as his revolutionary shoot 'em up's enemies of choice, deeming the decision immoral. Against all odds the myriad obstacles that obscured Nishikado's creativity were overcome; the developer found clever ways to squeeze the most functionality out of some very limited hardware; inspiration for the titular invaders was found at last in sea-creatures; those famously oppressive bleeps solved the sound problem; and tinted cellophane answered the question of colour come the game's release in Western arcades.

There are adages old as the sun about Space Invaders' development and legacy, not to mention innumerable fond memories and anecdotes about everyone's first time playing it. Some are true and others not so much. I wouldn't stake my life on the Japanese having to mint more ¥100 coins to meet the massive demand that arose after Space Invaders' arcade debut, but do no doubt my veracity when I say that, in 1978, Taito's unassuming arcade game changed the world. For better or worse it was a vital kiss of life that gave gaming a chance that precious few thought it worthy of - and if Space Invaders Extreme is anything to go by, my money's on the former.

For its 30th anniversary, Taito have remembered the little game that could with a re-envisioning of Nishikado's pet project on the PSP and DS. Extreme takes the core concepts of the original and extrapolates from the design document of its landmark predecessor all that could have been if the technology had been up to the task. The same trio of aspects on which Nishikado strove to innovate - speed, colour and sound - are at the very heart of Extreme; they are none of them the same, not hardly, but their re-energised implementation is faithful and appropriately frenetic. Take the incredibly effective little beeps of Space Invaders. They're out and a pulsing soundtrack that brings together ambient trance with some relatively inoffensive techno is in. Taito has obviously taken note of a more modern pioneer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who you could be mistaken for assuming had some role in Extreme's creation - not so, but his influence is vivid from the moment the game begins. And expect a shock when it does, because this is not the Space Invaders of yesteryear. It is brighter, faster, louder and less forgiving than its originator. Its innovations will excite you, its treacherous difficulty curve will challenge you, but it will not frustrate you for long, nor, to tell the truth, do much of anything for any length of time. Extreme has a lot of ideas, most of which are inspired, but they're quick-fire, some to the point of here-and-then-gone Warioware minigames. It's a short game but with the sort of replay value that only the best arcade efforts can lay claim to. It is, in the end, marvellous fun.

Expect all the colours of the rainbow and all the fish in the sea to set their sights on your little turret. Reds and yellows and pinks and greens are welcome, one and all; Taito's celebration positively pokes fun at the limited palette of Nishikado's original. The visuals, otherwise, aren't much changed. There are portable particle effects aplenty and the PSP version sports some incredibly distracting FMV backgrounds, but the developers have wisely opted to retain much of the characteristic simplicity of the first game. The war of the worlds is still being waged by the contents of a rock pool, but the flying fish army has come a long way since they first met us in battle; sporting lasers, duplicators and suicide bombers (I kid you not), it seems that the space invaders have spent the intervening decades investing heavily in weapons development, saving a little on the side to pimp their particular rides with spiffy new paint jobs and fuel injectors to enliven special occasions. They have a hundred new tricks up their tentacles, too. Some of the enemies rush your precious turret at crucial moments while others multiply and overwhelm you; some are so tiny as to be tough to hit, while a few are massively oversized, with bigger, badder armaments to boot. The sheer variety of enemies is staggering and in Extreme there's no place to hide, a revelatory design decision that might bring a certain snake to mind.

Your turret, however, is equal to the task. What amounts to a heads-up display - although it exists largely to fill otherwise empty screen real estate - tracks any number of facts and stats about your progress, including how many consecutive enemies of a certain colour you've taken down. Shoot four in a row and you're awarded one of several power-ups. Be deliberate and your purposefulness pays off in spades; for momentary madness free of consequence there's the shield, a well-placed bomb will net you a cluster of kills, a laser can plough through entire formations, and the broad shot means that even girl turrets stand a chance. But some of the invaders are equipped with reflective shields and a few are only vulnerable to certain types of attacks. For all of the two hours it takes to hold off the invasion, from first strike to final blow, your turret will be well matched by the alien onslaught and, beyond the increasingly crafty waves, there be bosses!

Arrr... but they be a little disappointing. There are a few genuinely pleasing Big Bads to despatch - the big blue octopus who you have to bounce shots at stands at the very fore - but, sadly, most of the boss invaders amount to little more than supersize versions of enemies you've already taken out in the hundreds, with predictable and transparent weak points. They can be a chore, in fact, spoiling some of the momentum that builds as though with your heart rate throughout the remainder of the experience. The concept is fine when it's executed well - on those occasions where the encounter is as much about puzzle-solving as button-bashing it impresses - but such opportunities are wasted more often than not.

Bland bosses do not, however, do much to take away from the overall ingenuity of Space Invaders Extreme. Taito have been gentle in their treatment of this lavish anniversary project, and at the last, they have succeeded in guiding an unfortunately ill-spent franchise towards more fitting territory. There's an exhilarating surprise around every corner; fever mode, activated by shooting down a multicoloured flying saucer, is a delirious joy, and if you're lucky enough to hit the yellow one then a roulette offers you such bounteous wonders as an extra man or a points bonus. Extreme is no modern marvel to look at but it need not be; its minimal graphics serve a very direct purpose more ably than the generous pixel-count of any triple-A title. Its music, although iffy in its own right, proves a perfect fit, and there's replay value aplenty. The sheer mania of wave-to-wave gameplay will take a while to truly master, and when the invasion is over and done - all too soon - you can opt to take two alternative, still more testing paths through the last levels. The PSP version is certainly the poorer of the two; despite a few graphical flourishes, it lacks the verticality of the experience on Nintendo's dual-screen, and, curiously, its longevity also suffers in comparison - the edition for Sony's handheld lacks the online leaderboards that keep you coming back for more.

Space Invaders Extreme might not be the ground zero of modern gaming, as Nishikado's original was in that golden age, thirty years ago - this is a case of evolution, not revolution - but that doesn't mean it's not a brilliant little gem to help while away a sweaty Summer. More to the point, it occupies the same hallowed ground as Pacman: Championship Edition and the forthcoming Bionic Commando: Rearmed, in that Space Invaders Extreme is, a stimulating and dare I say original experience in its own right. Although there is room for improvement (roll on the next anniversary), Extreme is a worthwhile testament to a golden oldie that forever changed the face of the industry.

Reviewed by Niall A. Rough for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).