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Sunday 9 June 2019

STUPID INVADERS


Comedy is something of a rarity in today's gaming market. Sure you may muster a titter or two at the quips made in Doom or the tantrum of a losing sibling in Mario Kart but none of them gets there through actual, full-on comedy. That's where classic adventures shine. And one that does is Xilam's 2000 point-and-clicker Stupid Invaders.

Xilam have had a storied career in animation. The French studio, who are comprised of ex-Gaumont employees, are responsible for the likes of Oggy and the Cockroaches, Lucky Luke and Space Goofs. All great series, with Stupid Invaders being an adaptation of that last one. The show sees a group of five aliens - Etno, Candy, Gorgious, Bud and Stereo - who, while picnicking in space, crash their saucer-shaped space ship on Earth.

In fear of the planet's native species, they take residence in an old abandoned mansion, living their reclusive lives until they can fix their ship and return home of Zigma-B. Called Home to Rent in the UK, where it aired on Channel 4 in the late 90s, it's a fun show with a cool theme tune written by Iggy Pop exclusively for the show. It has that anarchic Ren and Stimpy vibe that was all the rage back then, but a little more kid-friendly.

Etno Polino

The leader and the brains of the group. If it's available,
Etno can use the SMTV, a gizmo that can disguise him 
as anyone.

On his time on Earth, he has been writing an encyclopedia
about human life on the planet. He may be afraid of them, 
but he's developed an endearing affinity for the species.

"On moonless nights, he longs to have a few tufts of hair 
on his itchy bits."

Candy Caramella

The emotional, dramatic one (read: gay). He's the only one
of the five to have adopted fashion by way of a leopard skin
apron. While certainly effeminate in the show, it is confirmed
in the game that he is, in fact, transgender and plans on getting
a sex change from Professor Helmut.

"When Candy kicks up a stink, it's spectacular as it's unexpected."

Bud Buddiovitch

Certainly not the brains of the bunch, Bud is the one we're
left with at the beginning of the game. He managed to dodge
Bolok's attacks and locked himself in the toilet.

He may "think in slow motion" but his escape using nothing
but a plunger and military-strength toilet paper is quite
ingenious.
Gorgious Klatoo

The grumpy, mono-toothed Gorgious is the one alien that
really hates being on Earth, with the one exception - food. He
will eat pretty much anything, including items you may
think would be useful in a puzzle (hint: if he does, they're not).

He is often quite disparaging towards Candy, leading one to
wonder if there might be repressed feelings towards him. The
two's jaunt in the sewers certainly raises questions.

Stereo Monovici

Stereo "lives in a desolate world of meaningless facts". Good
for a pub quiz, not so much when escaping alien hunters.

The Siamese twins were left out of the revived season 2 of the
series due to his (their?) apparent lack of popularity, but his (their?)
schizophrenic personality (and gaseous nature) proves helpful here.



The game, on the other hand, skews a little older. While the show has the gang running away from boy scouts or loose fairy tale characters, the game features a sex-pervert in an assless bunny costume, explicitly pooping cows and a little too many barely-disguised penis jokes (if you can have too much of such a thing). The story goes a step ahead of the show too, with a nefarious scientist named Dr. Sakarin eyeing up the intergalactic housemates for his evil experiments. The end of the game acts as an end to Season 1, which was cancelled in 2000 before being revived for a second, more polished outing in 2002.

Visually, the traditional cell animation of the show is replaced with some weird-looking 3D graphics. It's not entirely unpleasant. There may be a fair number of animation gaffs (Gorgious' tooth occasionally clips through his lip) but overall, it has a bright and crisp design. Some of the humans do look like potatoes you'd find in the wonky produce section of your local environmentally conscious supermarket, but at least they're filled with character.

Be prepared for some very rude humour.

For any veteran of the point-and-click adventure, the gameplay will be very familiar. In fact, it's often simplified to the point where the correct action will be automatically selected. You can still cycle through the verbs with the right mouse button, but it's rarely needed. The puzzles are inventory based which is brought up by pressing 'space', yet most puzzles are relatively self-contained. Find yourself stuck in a room? The item you need to get out won't be far away. In fact, expect to use anything you pick up fairly quickly.

Be warned, though. Stupid Invaders does feature that bane of adventure game mechanics - instant, unexpected death. In many situations, the rubbery features of our alien family mean that they are quite indestructible. Except when the game doesn't want them to be. This is more prevalent later on in the game where any errant interaction with a human will lead to instant death. My tip: don't talk to any of 'em. You'll be finding various bizarre ways to kill them anyway (death by blunt object, death by blowfish).

The tiny Dr. Sakarin (and his evil scientist henchman) want the aliens for their experiments (left)
Many cupboards and fridges contain a purple bear with a mallet. Dunno why (right)

The trial and error approach may be a pain, but if you save regularly it's not much of an issue. I found it just as enjoyable to find all of the elaborate death sequences. Where the true difficulty lies is in its moon logic. For example, the potato-faced man in black (humorously named Bolok) is temporarily defeated with the careful use of a wardrobe, pantyhose and a lawnmower. Later on, an exploding chicken Godzilla is key to open the hatch to the sewers. To crawl through the gap under a locked door, you will have to squish one of your characters into a thin, crawling pancake. It takes some out-of-the-box thinking to get to these answers.

It's all very bizarre, and all the better for it, but that moon logic doesn't necessarily mean it's an overly difficult game. If you're lost just use everything in your inventory on every hotspot you come across. There may be many screens but few have points of interactable interest. Couple that with an inventory with a limited six slots that rarely gets full and you'll get past a tricky situation with ease.

Bolok, the man in black hired to capture the aliens. 
You can scupper his plans in a variety of Tex Avery inspired ways.

The main draw, though, is the humour. Many of the gags would be a little too blue for a PG rating, yet many may feel that they're a little too juvenile for the average adult. I felt it played the jokes just the right side of shocking and firmly into the absurd territory. It's the kind of humour you might find in a particularly off-the-wall Monty Python sketch - think of the organ transplant scene in Meaning of Life and you get the idea. I would say that the crazy shenanigans the aliens get up to is the highlight of the game. It often left me laughing out loud which is all too rare in this medium.

So, from a gameplay perspective, it's simple, easy and not particularly unique. From a story perspective, it will sharply turn into tangents for the sole purpose of an obscene joke or two. From a comedy perspective, I would say it's a must play. Unless you'd baulk at the image of an alien porno shoot, poo explosions or a dissolving Santa Claus, give Stupid Invaders a go. It certainly lives up to its name in the best way possible.


To download the game, follow the link below. This is a custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses dgVoodoo in conjunction with DxWind to run on modern systems. nGlide 3D Wrapper (included) must be installed. Manual included. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 1.67 Gb.  Install Size: 2.53 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download



Stupid Invaders (the game) is © Xilam Animation
Space Goofs (the series) is © Xilam Animation
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me


Like this? Try These...

http://collectionchamber.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/ufos.html  https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/2019/02/monty-pythons-meaning-of-life.html  https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/2019/02/kingdom-o-magic.html

20 comments:

  1. I had this game back in the day, and loved it. ( :
    Could never finish it though.
    It's great that I can give it another bash.
    Thanks for all your hard work Biff. (:

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome! I had it on the DreamCast which was decent for a console adventure port. Nothing quite beats point-n-clickers on PC though.

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  2. Thanks Biff, I loved this game:) Pitty was that 4th CD was damaged I was not able to finnish the game. Mow its time to beat it!

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  3. can you please lay out disney tarzan pc with working music

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm erring against most of Disney's platformers because I believe GOG and others will be getting them sooner or later - look at Aladdin, Lion King and most recently Hercules. Like those, Disney owns Tarzan outright too, unlike their early collaborations with Sierra and Capcom. There's more of a chance that Tarzan will officially see the light of day than their educational titles.

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  4. This game is a delight. Assuming people don't get offended too easily, it's unputdownable. I'm already almost halfway through.

    Well done for finally getting it working. It must have been difficult to figure out, needing both dgVoodoo and DxWind as well as an nGlide wrapper. Not many other sites will have managed this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Initially I thought I had it sorted with just dgVoodoo, but I ran into problems when playing through the game. Thankfully DxWnd sorted that.

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  5. Great choice once again,they don't make much cool pncs like they used to.

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  6. Thank you very much fo another point-and-clik adventure.

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  7. One of the great adventure games no one ever played,thanks alot.

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  8. Nice great job, i gave up trying to make it work on win7 a week ago (was freezing after intro).

    Btw do you know "Icarus: Sanctuary of the Gods"? A very underrated CRPG. Would be great if you add it to your collection!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I've not heard of Icarus but it looks interesting. Most of the CRPGs I played or wanted to play have been re-released on GOG so I'm up for some hidden gems. I've added it to my request list.

      Delete
  9. Do you think it would be possible if you could add the three Blair Witch titles from early 2000's to you're collection?(first one was even done by the same devs as Nocturne was).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have them but I've not attempted to get them working yet. What with the new Blair Witch game coming out (that actually looks like it could be good!), it might be a good time to give 'em a go.

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  10. Game ended up freezing at one point, is there anyway to fix this?

    Thank you for uploading all these underrated and forgotten games!

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  11. It just crashes and I have to restart my PC.

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  12. This game is terrible

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  13. Does not work, crashes at the intro. (Testing on Win 8.1)

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  14. hi, the game crashes during the opening sequence (for me it crashed at the shark scene)

    ReplyDelete