In 1978, kids young and old started popping quarters into Space Invaders arcade machines. In 1980, the game landed on the Atari 2600 and was the first arcade game to be officially licensed. There have been numerous sequels and remakes on various platforms. This year, for the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders, developer Backbone Entertainment and publisher Taito are releasing Space Invaders Extreme as an Xbox Live Arcade download.

At Game Developers Conference 2009, I got to play Space Invaders Extreme. I’ll admit it: I rarely played the original Space Invaders or any variation of the game. I am definitely familiar with the game and have played it at least a few times. I mean, come on, it’s a classic.

For this latest installment of Space Invaders, the gameplay is about the same as the classic version. You move your ship back and forth along the bottom of the screen, and you get to shoot at the alien invaders swooping down and swinging across, attempting to take you out. There will be various power-ups available, including more powerful weapons and score multipliers. You can get these by shooting columns of aliens and various other ways. The game also offers bonus round minigames in which you get to up your score and not die.

The graphics in Space Invaders Extreme are a blend of the original pixilated images and prettier updated styles. The background has a visualizer that reacts to the music. It’s rather psychedelic — like most visualizers. Jeff Minter — known for games like Tempest 2000, Space Giraffe, Gridrunner and more — created the visualizers, which also increase in intensity and saturation as the invaders speed up or change formations. The game has many really bright colors, but thankfully, there’s also an option to tone them down, which really pleased me.

The sound in Space Invaders Extreme is pleasing but not very memorable. That’s not a bad thing, though, since I know it didn’t drive me insane. You hear laser sounds when you shoot at the enemy and various other simple sounds, such as the invaders moving about the screen.

Space Invaders Extreme is both a single-player game and a multiplayer game. Multiplayer can be either local or online and either versus or co-op. The three variations of the game include a survivor mode, a score mode and a practice mode. I played a bit of the multiplayer versus mode and managed to do fairly well. It was definitely good times.

The game comes out in late April on XBLA. If you’re a fan of the original Space Invaders or any variation of the game, you’ll enjoy Space Invaders Extreme. So celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original game by downloading the latest installment. And have some fun destroying some aliens.