Every Extend Extra PSP Review

Starting life as a freeware game and under the hand of an unnamed solitary programmer, Every Extend was a project that won the admiration of Q Entertainment’s Tetsuya Mizuguchi, so much so that he decided to take the idea and make his own version.

Having added the “Extra” to the title Q Entertainment’s version is actually the original with a few additions here and there, and this, along with the extra polish, results in a game which takes an idea and brilliantly expands on it. If you do wish to play the original it can be found on the internet (Google it!), or more conveniently it can be found on the UMD alongside the spruced up version.

If you like blowing things up then Every Extend Extra (or E3 for short, clever idea that) should lighten up your day, although it’s not strictly about blowing enemies up as we are so used to doing in our games, it also involves pressing the self destruct button (your only offence), and blowing yourself up, the idea being to take as many enemies with you as possible. That’s right, suicide is good in this one, although you can’t keep pressing the self destruct button until the calm arrives, as you only get a limited amount of ships, and the only way to earn additional “extends” is by harvesting green power-ups that are dropped from exploded enemies.

For first timers, there’s an excellent tutorial mode that guides you from the basics of the game to the very advanced strategies that you need to employ if you are wanting to play the game in the way it was meant to be played, and that’s aiming for those skyscraper sized scores.

Daisy chaining a series of explosions is all about positioning yourself and timing your self detonation, and in this sense it can be quite a frantic game as enemies spill towards you and you suddenly find yourself right in the middle of them. It’s also a satisfying one, as you witness a well timed explosion craft a chain of kills to be proud of.

Boss stages meanwhile are unusual in the way that they require you to hit them with necessary combos to do any damage, and courtesy of the fast paced nature of the game and the crucial positioning of your ship, this can be quite a difficult task.

Speaking of fast paced, the game and its techno soundtrack can be speeded up with pink power-ups dropped by enemies, these so called quickens are useful in the way that they make enemies appear on the screen in quicker succession, potentially making way for bigger scores.

The game might be pretty short, but it’s certainly a tricky one that calls on some serious coordination. Getting through the first couple of stages can be a true test of patience, and of course, things just keep getting progressively more difficult from then on. Due to this level of difficulty, it may very well be too overwhelming for some, and you’ll definitely need those gorgeous hypnotic visuals to hold the attention of your eyes as if a spell has been cast on them.

Every Extend Extra is a well designed puzzle game that moves at lightning fast pace and looks spellbindingly lovely. It’s certainly a good game to test all your gaming skills that you have picked up over the years, but due to that difficulty, it isn’t one that will please everyone in equal measure.

7/10