Every Extend Extra Extreme (XBLA)

A quick little proviso before I go on. I’ve never played any of the Every Extend games before; this was my first experience with one. Therefore I’m talking about this game as a stand alone experience, rather than in the context of the games that came before. So, erm, yeah…read on!

Q Entertainment’s Every Extend Extra Extreme is a difficult game to classify. It’s a puzzle game with no puzzles, a rhythm action game where you spend most of the time watching rather than hitting buttons. The first time I picked up the pad I had no idea what a ‘Quicken’ did, why my avatar disappeared for minutes at a time, or generally what on earth was going on. But I was loving every second, and therein lays part of what makes E4 such an engaging experience. The careful combination of sound, visuals and vibration is dazzling enough that even when you have only the vaguest of ideas surrounding the mechanics of play it can still dazzle and excite.

Q Entertainment has definitely marked out a niche in the industry, placing their focus on vibrant puzzle games fleshed out with elements of rhythm-action. It’s a fantastic blend, and one that goes against what many of us have come to expect from XBLA – twin stick shooters and updated versions of board games. E4 displays Q’s idiosyncratic nature set by titles such as Lumines and Rez, but once again morphs it into its own unique design. The game works almost like the opposite of a shoot-em-up. You take control of a cursor-like avatar, your aim being to explode in different positions around the screen and thus setting off huge chain reactions. The closer you hit the A button to the beat of the song, the larger the detonation that emanates. The longer it lasts and the more enemies that join the chain, the more points you score. Q’s presence is felt all the more strongly as each point on the chain makes a noise, creating a sort of abstract dance music as the whole thing explodes like an elaborate fireworks show. It may seem odd and more than a little tedious to press just one button and then simply watch from anywhere between five seconds and two minutes, but in reality it’s anything but. Watching explosions ripple across the screen whilst building in intensity and vivacity is immensely satisfying, even when you’re not doing anything. The hefty pad vibration certainly adds to the overall pull of the game.

Your avatar has infinite lives, simply respawning every time you touch one of the other objects on screen. Time is the real enemy, a concept that shapes the puzzle side of the game. Each time your chain runs out, it subsides and your cursor respawns on the screen, whereupon you must vacuum up any power-ups that have been left behind. This is made easier by the shield that protects you for the first few seconds of your respawn (which also creates on of E4’s biggest let downs – but more on that later). Pickups include ‘Time Extend’, which will put more time on the clock in Unlimited mode, and ‘Quickens’ that increase enemy movement speed and density, creating a larger likelihood of bigger chains. Deciding where best to detonate your avatar is crucial in gaining the big points, whilst deciding when to cancel an explosion and grab the pick ups is just as vital to keep going while the clock ticks down. It’s a constant race to keep yourself going as long as possible, and as the levels get faster and more intense you’ll almost feel that your heart is going with the beat of the song, your eyes tuned in to every pick up, every enemy waiting to be destroyed.

Your points will accumulate into the trillions on particularly lengthy games, and you’ll be seeing plenty of these as E4’s core problem is that it is far too easy. Any one game can last hours if you have the patience and even the slightest grasp of the mechanics. This creates a rather hollow response, as it just doesn’t offer the feeling of achievement you gain from a harder game. Most titles of this nature suggest a pick-up-and-play quality. This will only be true of E4 if you quit out half way through your go (which negates your score) or you get yourself killed. The biggest challenge is making sure you’ve hit the detonation button before your shield has run out, which is about as hard as fairy cake. Diligent collection of Time Extends also means that building your remaining time back up is far from taxing. If the shield were gone and the enemies fewer there would be much more of a challenge to E4, a satisfying difficulty curve rather than fifteen minutes of excitement followed by an almost endless plateau of tedium.

E4’s shoot-‘em-up mode, named ‘Revenge’, adds a little more to the title, presenting 100 levels of firing bullets at your enemies instead of detonating them, with boss battles to boot. This is further compounded by what I personally feel is one of the game’s best features – the ability to add your own music. It’s the sort of implementation that, once you’ve played around with it a bit, you can’t see why it’s not included in every game that fits nicely into this genre. The sheer joy of listening to your favourite songs accompanied by the fantastic explosion of light and rhythm is amongst the best sensations gaming can offer. I tried it with Radiohead, Chemical Brothers and even Pink Floyd – all were awesome (sneaking on a tune from the Rez soundtrack wasn’t half bad either).

Every Extend Extra Extreme is a game that can excite sections of the mind that other games leave untouched, but for many it is most likely considered too unique and trippy for its own good, causing confusion and boredom rather than the excitement and exhilaration it should. If you can overlook the diverse play mechanics and the ease of play that makes the game a little too insufficient, and instead look upon it as a fun game that attempts new ideas with the genre, then you’ll enjoy E4 for whatever amount of time you choose to devote to it. It’s a cool game, and a gorgeous showpiece for Xbox Live Arcade, holding up well with the likes of other psychedelic titles such as Geometry Wars and Space Giraffe.

6/10