until, of course, enough loot has been amassed for the next upgrade. The shop keeps fairly regular hours by opening for business between each wave and for the most part and, like a cruel game show, it just serves to remind the player what could have been won. Capturing the illegal alien, however, yields a nice cash bonus towards the 'pimp my spaceship' fund but conversely, in a move that will surprise absolutely nobody, a hefty fine to all who fail to prevent his escape.

Occasionally, one of the aliens will parachute out of its doomed ship in a bid for freedom, giving the player an additional chance to add to their revenue stream, though more often than not a stray bullet will kill that earning opportunity. Whilst continuously topping up the shields (lives) is tempting, it makes far more sense to channel earnings towards levelling up the available firepower before the action gets too frantic as relying too long on the bog standard weaponry will only serve to hinder progress in the long run. These earnings can be spent on upgrading the ship in a bid towards making the task at hand a little easier and options such as more powerful / frequent bullets, increased cool down times of auxiliary weaponry, and additional gun extensions are necessary for those intending to progress to the later stages of the game. Yes, the unexpected appearance of money in the mix spices up the proceedings somewhat as each vanquished alien results in a monetary reward wired directly into the players' in-game bank account. Successfully taking this bonus-laden hooligan out of play results in a random item dropping out of the sky, which can range from a Super-gun (no further description required), a Super-shield (no further description required), bonus points (meh) or cold hard cash! In keeping with the classic elements of the genre, it is heart warming to see that the flying saucer is still gainfully employed and can occasionally be spotted speeding across the top of the screen, presumably taking care of important alien business. Variety is key here as every few levels the player gets introduced to a new breed of alien ship with its own unique flight path that might be easy enough to deal with individually, but when they start to team up with the other ships to co-ordinate and combine their swooping attacks, the difficulty level slowly starts to ramp creep up. Where Space Invaders had said invaders creeping downwards in a ploddy, predictable left / right crawling motion, Titan Attacks will sprint from relatively unpredictable directions - at high speed - whilst blatantly flaunting the 'no running with scissors' rule. Well, Titan Attacks does a pretty good job of fleshing out the admittedly stale gameplay of the original Space Invaders formula by injecting the proceedings with a heavy dose of retro-infused steroids, beefing up the action considerably in the process.

Any games caught riffing off its mechanics are automatically labelled as an 'Invaders clone,' so as a game that has this very declaration tattooed right across its blocky forehead, what does Titan Attacks offer the gamer in search of kicks from the oldest of the old school? Space Invaders itself was a massive deal when it first descended into existence back in what is often referred to as the 'Golden Age' of videogames, and whilst it spawned many imitators at the time, it will always be respectfully referred to as the original. If it's possible to imagine what the third generation of offspring from an unholy union between a Space Invaders cabinet and a Galaxians machine would be like, then it's safe to say that Titan Attacks would be a fairly close approximation. Upon first glance it looks like the next logical step in the evolution of the 'Invaders' family tree but digging a bit deeper reveals recognisable traces of numerous coin-op classics spliced into its DNA, with a knowing nod and a tip of the hat to such luminaries as Centipede, Missile Command and Asteroids. If there was ever a videogame equivalent of the popular genealogy based BBC light entertainment show 'Who Do You Think You Are?' the resident experts would have a field day with Titan Attacks.

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