For a small independent company Q Entertainment's track record is impressive. In its short history, the studio has already worked across three different platforms and gained critical success with the seminal music-puzzler Lumines, which isn't bad considering most of its employees are straight out of collage.
In case you're looking at the colourful screenshots and scratching your head in bemusement, Tetsuya Mizuguchi's studio has looked to the classic PC shooter Every Extend for its latest PSP entry, and remixed it with the mind-bending visuals and thumping soundtrack we've come to expect from the ex-Sega luminary.
It's perhaps Q's most unique game yet, and thankfully just as addictive as its handheld brother Lumines.
The original PC title - for those not up on their freeware games - essentially has you manoeuvring a small 'cursor' around a top-down playfield, not unlike a traditional 2D shooter. However, things get a bit special when upon searching for a fire button you figure out that your only means of defence is by literally blowing yourself up, and taking as many baddies as you can with you.
As you can probably imagine this makes for some pretty strategic gameplay, as you stalk the playfield waiting for exactly the right moment to destroy yourself in a blaze of glory and, in a shockwave of explosions, dispatch most the screen's square-shaped obstacles.
But obviously there'd be little challenge on offer if you could suicide to your heart's content, so in the PSP game Q has wisely limited the number of times you can go boom with a 'stock' counter on the side of the screen, with mass-kills being your only means of topping it up.
Add to this a forever-present countdown timer and there's even more strategy involed in where and when you choose to press the big red button. A poor detonation can land you with a life wasted, but a crafty demolition could rack-in the points and pile up your stock. It sounds addictive already, doesn't it? And our written warning for missed morning tube stops says it is.
As with Miz's previous titles, everything in EEE - or E3 as Q likes to call it (we suppose that abreviation is available now) - is designed for replayability and hefty levels of addiction. The game features your standard shooter 'arcade' mode, which is divided into levels with end bosses, and Caravan mode, which is a score attack-style affair which unlocks new levels after successful arcade bouts. There are only nine 'levels' plus two secret ones on offer, but as with cult music blaster Rez, its obvious that a lot of thought has gone in to their design.
Levels are all constructed with, ah, levels of flair and overwhelming uniqueness almost un-seen in rival shooters. It's obvious that this school of design is aimed squarely at a certain breed of gamer, but if that 'beat-the-best-score' hook grabs your fancy then it can be a more rewarding game experience than even the most epic of RPGs, and you'll probably end up destroying a few PSP batteries, as we have.
They're also spectacular and absorbing in a visual sense; using a 'skin' setup similar to Lumines E3's levels are completely unique from each other right down to how the enemies explode, and even what they look like. One level, for example, has horsefly enemies that burst into colourful fireworks, while in another rock-like baddies explode in a gorgeous firework display. Don't judge E3 by the screenshots - it really has to be seen in motion to be appreciated.
Boss fights offer further twists to the standard game formula; anything from a trio of venus fly-traps to a flailing-armed sea creature come your way, and you're tasked with chaining up a certain number of enemies in order to harm them. For example, when asked to hit the boss character with a chain of five, you'll have to actually work through a line of five before making contact in order to inflict damage on the boss. This can become quite tricky when presented with higher numbers, and in later stages boss characters can become what we would probably call in the pub "bat shit insane."
Thus far we've spent most game time in the Arcade mode, which shows off E3's unique stages in a more traditional 'level-boss-level' setup. If you've played either Rez or Lumines, you'll know that the sound and visual presentation at work is more than just skin-deep - Q's obsession with 'Synaesthesia', the concept of seeing sounds and hearing visuals, has driven all of their titles to date, and E3 is no exception.
Sounds are layered into gameplay mechanics so that essentially, you're creating your own soundtrack just by playing the game. While it's not quite as present as in Rez, moving your cursor sends off a fanfare of synthy sounds, and when combined with snare-crashing destruction noises, synth-stabbing 'mini-boss' enemies and the level's own thumping bass-line, you've got a soundtrack that to an extent builds-up and descends based on your performance.
The quickness meter plays another big part in the orchestral tom-foolery. Indicated by a purple bar on the right of the screen, quickness is gained by collecting purple-coloured crystals from similarly-shaded enemies. Each notch on the quickness meter, along with making you faster and spurring more enemies onto the playfield, builds up the soundtrack and generally makes things more up-beat.
This is, and always has been, the most intriguing, and the defining, aspect of Mizuguchi's titles. If you're playing well, with your score withering in the thousands, shockwaves of enemy explosions daisy-chaining across the screen and your quickness meter thumping with the level's techno beat, you'll notice that the soundtrack is totally coherent with your success, speeding up and adding extra layers of sound to further boost and emphasise your performance.
Crash in to an enemy and it's all gone - the game will immediately descend into a dull baseline with minimum layers of sound, most of the time taking your mood with it. It's a very simple concept but incredibly effective. If you're pushing for a high score and simultaneously feeling the buzz of the soundtrack, then surely your on a high, the best of which the medium can offer. Simply put, the integration of sound and gameplay makes for an incredibly absorbing, intense, engaging shooter experience - which when it works - is unlike anything in the shooting genre we've played before.
With all the impressive music and visual tech pushing Every Extend Extra, its easy to forget that when you strip it all away there's a unique and addictive shooter lying underneath. As with Lumines, E3 is a game for those who appreciate a simple yet brilliantly-realised, score-driven experience - otherwise you might just be put off by the limited amount of raw content the game has to offer - it's not exactly Vice City Stories in terms of the breadth of its appeal, and even for the most committed of score-gamers could be disappointed by the number of levels.
But as for us, we're still vying to top the leaders boards and add 'just one more' to our max chain, and we're sure we'll be pulling out Every Extend Extra for a quick bash for a while yet.
A unique, absorbing - if a little short - blaster unlike anything else in the genre.
Uppers
Mind-bending soundtrack and visuals make for an absorbing game experience One of the most unique shooters on the PSP More addictive than lager and pub slot machines combined (and they often are)
Downers
Arcade mode is quite short Some might not appriciate the game's 'score-topping' nature
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Mind-bending soundtrack and visuals make for an absorbing game experience
