Every Extend Extra Eview AKA a night with Mizuguchi demoing the game

21 January 2007

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Posted by:Alan

VGB was invited by Buena Vista Games this Wednesday at the Kingly Club in London, UK, and this is the first hands on review on what will be “another” Tetsuya Mizuguchi classic.

I arrived at the venue at about 7.25pm to be greeted with “Hello Alan, nice to see you again” from the promoters! Nice to get the recognition, but the crash helmet can be a bit of a reminder, but hey if it works!! Down a small dark narrow stair case to what used to be a basement by the looks of it, but is now a member’s only club, very exclusive and very expensive. At the far end was a large screen running a “demo” of Every Extend Extra, from a PSP Dev-Kit.

They also had some pictures on canvas, about 60cm x 30cm. These were various images form the game, all of which Tetsuya had signed. My favourite was the image of the game cover/invite, STUNNING. I am sorry to say that these weren’t going lucky people on the night but to be auctioned off at a later date. Buggar! There weren’t too many people at the beginning as there never is, only the sad people, like me, but hey if you ain’t there you don’t know what you may be missing! I had a nice cold beer, as I was only being hospitable, sat down at a table. Eventually I decided to go and have a closer look at the demo running, which I must say was pretty impressive…


Visually stunning as you now come to expect with every “Q” game. I was expecting the great man to be making a grand entrance, but I found him sitting in a small alcove with a close friend in almost pitch black, with a PR guy covering the entrance. I said hello past the PR guy and Tetsuya said hello back. I passed on VGB’s thanks for the interview he gave us last year. If you missed it where have you been! If you notice Gary the cameraman, he was also acting as the DJ on the night, a man of many talents indeed! I said that the winner Y. Reetesh has now put the signed copy he gave us as pride of place in his collection. He said it was glad that it was appreciated and that it was nice to see me again! Such a nice man. I said I would try and catch a few minutes with him later in the evening, as he had just flown in from Los Angeles, US, lunchtime, had already done one interview and was here doing more.

I had a quick play of the game without really watching the “how to play” tutorial that was running on the screen, so my own fault. For the first 10-15 minutes I didn’t have a clue, but there was a lot going on on the screen. So I gave up and waited for the man himself to give us a run through…

After he gave us a demo and answered lots of questions, some of them really mundane, but you have to give him credit as he must get this day in day out. I had another go and it all fell into place. Another majorly addictive game. Some REZ based ideas and some others that are just beyond me. It seems like some games I have played before but can’t put my finger on them. Perhaps Ikaruga where you have to collect power ups of one colour to boost speed etc. and other colours damage you.

The graphics are fantastic, so bright & colourful, again going back to his Sega days where they always seemed to be so vibrant. You get 9 levels in all to start with, 1-7 and alpha & beta. Complete one, un-lock the next, and so on. You also get the original Every Extend Extra PC game to play, so if you have played this, you can go back to it and it will also help you with the main game.

The second level is called “Sakura” which is a Japanese blossom and when you blow yourself up the explosion is in the patter of the blossom, the items you have to blow up to get your bonus points/chains are bugs (in Q fashion/graphics). The end of level boss is them at first one flower that you have to destroy by hitting with chains of 5 or 6. Then once completed two bosses appear and this goes on for a while, but in no way feels tiring or just too damn hard.

Graphically a bit like Feel The Magic on the DS – play Every Extend Extra and you will get what I mean. The playability is just about right on the early levels, as I am sure the later levels will be damn hard, but plenty of practice on the earlier levels will get you in good stead. I did ask about a port of this to DS with use of the touch screen, but he didn’t reply. So is this code for in the making or something else.

For those of you who love and are addicted to both Lumines outings, this is another one you “MUST” have. Supadupagama, will be able to provide a full review on the game shortly as a copy is winging its way to him. Sorry to say I have to buy a PSP to use mine.

PS: (not PSP) I have had a night to think on this and I have not got the best comparison I can think of “Missile Command“. Once you play this you will see the comparisons.

Every Extend Extra will be released in Europe on February 9th, 2007. In America the game was released at the end of 2006.