It Came From Space and Ate Our Brains

Triangle Studios' latest release, It Came From Space and Ate Our Brains (definitely a mouthful of a title!) is a top-down arcade styled co-op shooter in which the earth has been invaded by aliens. You, Jerry, have a variety of weapons at your disposal and you have to wipe out all of the aliens, before they wipe you out.

You can choose to play alone or with up to three friends through 18 different levels. Playing with friends definitely feels like the way to go here as the levels are fairly long and drawn out, to a frustrating extent at times. Having backup to lighten the load when taking out the enemies makes for a more fun experience, and allows for different players to utilize different weapons to increase the likelihood of success.

Visually, the game is gorgeous. It's done in a very simple blocky style, but the neon lighting and harsh shadows give such an ominous vibe with these hordes of looming extra-terrestrials. As well as your flashlight beaming, you wield often bright weaponry that further adds to this. The sound design works well here too, with simple catchy tunes spurring you on.

There are 24 weapons in total, made up of six guns that can be upgraded three times each. Upgrading massively helps you throughout the game, but annoyingly these upgrades do not carry over from level to level, putting you right back to the start - weapons-wise - with every level you complete. Having the choice of weaponry helps as various upgrades will help you more against certain enemies, however, through the course of a level you will only earn enough to upgrade one gun fully - meaning you might leave yourself at a disadvantage somewhere.

As mentioned before, the levels are frustratingly lengthy. You battle your way through dozens of aliens before reaching a safe zone, thinking you'd made it to the end of the level and can save only to realise that you've still got further to go. At first this seemed like an exciting challenge, but with very similar looking environments due to the limited use of colour - aside from the neon pink mouths of the aliens - everything ends up feeling very samey.

At £12.49 on Xbox, it is priced cheaply enough but if you aren't a huge fan of these types of games, you might want to give it a miss or wait for a price drop. If you're just looking for additional games to play couch co-op with friends, then this might be an option for you.

In the end, we decided to give It Came From Space And Ate Our Brains the Collecting Asylum rating of 5/10.

Have you played ICFSATOB yet? What did you think of it?

Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thanks to EvolvePR for the It Came From Space And Ate Our Brains Xbox One review code!