One dollar and nineteen cents. That’s how much Energy Invasion cost me. It’s hard to resist such a bargain when you see sales like these on the PSN Store, but there’s also the fact it’s foolish to expect a lot of quality from a game that cheap (its original asking price was around two bucks). You might remember my awful experience with another recent two dollar game, the abysmal Little Adventure on the Prairie. Thankfully, Energy Invasion was nowhere near as bad as that game. That doesn’t mean much, though, as it would take a lot of effort in order to be worse than that disaster of a game. Energy Invasion is mediocre at best, an unnecessary idea for a game, but for little more than a dollar, it was alright, I guess. . .

A visual powerhouse

Energy Invasion is, purely and simply, a Breakout clone, so you know what to expect about the gameplay: you control a little paddle and your objective is to bounce a ball in order to destroy tiles at the top of the screen. The main difference here lies on the way you break the tiles, as you need to shoot them. Yep, hitting them with your ball does absolutely nothing, you need to shoot the tiles with a barely functional twin-stick shooter mechanic in order to actually break them. Those shooting mechanics are quite clunky, as they aren’t very responsive. Sometimes you’ll be able to shoot very quickly, sometimes the game will barely respond to your commands. That makes little difference, though, as the game is still very easy. It’s one of those games made for trophy hoarders to get an easy platinum, so you’ll still get all of the achievements quickly.

Visually speaking, the game is a mess. It keeps throwing psychedelic effects at you with little to no cohesion (given the fact this was supposed to be a game about aliens, not tripping on acid). Your ball is really small, your shots are really small, the tiles are really small, and the Windows Media Player-esque visual effects are immense. This is simply not a good looking game. One saving grace is the soundtrack. I’m not going to say it is downright fantastic, but the electronic tunes work for the most part, even though the game’s initial volume setup is unbearably loud.

I wish I had better pictures but this is all the game has to offer

There’s some fun to be had here, but in the end Energy Invasion is a very forgettable title, a Breakout clone that tried too hard to innovate by adding a confusing shooter mechanic into a formula that didn’t need to be changed. If you want some cheap and easy gold and platinum trophies, go for it, you’ll get all of the achievements in an hour, maybe two, but you’ll probably delete the game from your hard drive shortly after.

Graphics: 3.5 Those LSD-inspired visuals might be trippy and colorful but they become an eyesore after a few minutes.	Gameplay: 5.0 It’s Breakout with an unnecessary twin-stick shooter element thrown into the mix. The shooting responsiveness has a mind of its own.
Sound: 7.0 The electronic beats are decent, but make sure to turn the volume down a bit before playing the game. The game also features 8-bit sound effects.	Fun Factor: 4.5 There’s some arcade fun to be had here, but nothing beats actually playing Breakout or its less complicated clones.
Final Verdict: 4.5

Reviewed on PS4.
Also available on: PS Vita, Switch, PC