Review: Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon

Platform: PlayStation 3/Xbox 360

Developer: Vicious Cycle

Publisher: D3Publisher of America

# of Players 1 - 2 (online: 2 - 6)

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Official Site

Score: B+

The bugs are back and badder then before thanks to developer Vicious Cycle and D3Publisher of America. Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon manages to be a leaner, meaner, faster and in a few way, better game than its predecessor thanks to tweaks to the run 'n gun formula that streamlines the number of missions yet enhances the gameplay. Controls are tight, the action is more reasonably paced (initially) for new players and for the most part, the addition of online play is not bad at all. Some gamers whose experience with this budget series began with EDF 2017 (and those who seem to think the game ONLY appeared on the 360) might find nit-picky faults with some elements of EDFIA. However, those of us who've been around since the series debut on the Japanese PlayStation 2 and/or love original developer Sandlot's work on the franchise now have a new dev team to moon over because they've taken the gameplay and refined it for a just as fun (and at times, more fun) to play experience.

Official Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Survival Guide

OK, I was going to print the actual strategy guide PDF, but at a whopping 46 pages (!), that would be a bit too much in the way of overkill. Here's the EDFIA Survival Guide instead if you haven't seen it yet. Simple and easy to memorize. The game rocks by the way - review to come...

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Destruction Trailer (The Game Is Almost Here...)

Yes, yes... the game is in retail stores across North America on Tuesday, but here's a peek at another UK trailer, this time focusing on stuff blowing up and falling apart extremely well indeed. I'll post the awesome Survival/Field Guide tomorrow.

E3 2011: Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Trailer (UK)

Yes, it's the UK version (Namco Bandai is publishing the game there), but sonce D3 hasn't posted this yet, I'm running this version here (which is the same save for an ESRB descriptor at the beginning and D3Publisher's logo at the end) just to keep you EDFIA fans happy and ready for July 5, 2011. EDF! EDF!

Gallery: Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Bestiary

Want to know what sort of over-sized opposition you'll be facing off against this July 5th? Well, here you go - a look at some of the enemy types from D3Publisher of America's upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 bug-blasting action game. Hmmm... Fireworks on the 4th and more fireworks on the 5th? Sounds like a plan...

Earth Defense Force Insect Armgeddon Update: Pre-Order Kickoff GO!

D3Publisher of America has launched the pre-order program for its upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 release Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon with a pretty neat deal for those who want a little more bang for their buck. GameStop and Best Buy locations will be offering those who slap down a deposit one of two different cool DLC weapons packs for the game's customizable armor sets.

July 5, 2011 is the official release date for the game and (YES!) D3 is dropping into NYC next week with EDFIA and a bunch of other upcoming titles, so expect a few hands-on reports once I finally come up for air. Three more screens and another trailer below the jump!

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon 2011 Calendar Brings Warmth To The Holiday Season (and how!)

So... guess what showed up today courtesy of D3Publisher of America? Yow-za. Now, D3 just NEEDS to answer that musical question: "Will Pale Wing be in EDFIA?" All kidding aside, that "exclusive interview" cover teaser, has me HOPING she's added into the upcoming game as a playable character (and they've had Vicious Cycle use one of the lovely ladies in the calendar as a model for her). One can only hope! Note to D3: the more fan service the better!
By the way... What, NO screen shots at all in the calendar? (Just kidding!)

A Date With D3...

Heh. Got an email from UPS that says D3Publisher has sent me an Earth Defense Force Calendar... This should be really interesting (I need to take a pic of the huge fold-out Onechanbara calendar they sent back when those games were released and post it one day). Expect an update with pics around the 15th (the expected delivery date)... I do love the holidays!

In unrelated news, I'll be giving away some spectacular stuff this month, so watch this space for a big ol' announcement...

(Later Than Usual) Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Update: Split Screen Is In, But The Whining STILL Continues...

Proof positive that you can never, ever, EVER please ALL pf the people all of the time, D3Publisher of America recently updated the official Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon page as well as the game's Facebook page last week with the absolutely grand news that split-screen cooperative gameplay (or couch co-op) is now a part of the upcoming release. While a good deal of cheers and back-slapping has lightened the mood of assorted message boards, there are STILL some die-hard hard-heads griping about aspects of the game that would ONLY be truly justified complaints if these posters actually got their hands on an up-to-date (and still in-progress build).

Yeesh. Cue any sort of facepalm theme music or related animated GIF at this point

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Update: Official Site Is Up and Running

Hah! D3Publisher has quietly updated the official EDFIA website with screens, videos as well as pre-order info through GameStop and yup... Facebook and Twitter links. Go take a look NOW and sign up if you're a fan!

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Update: Two Gameplay Videos

Color me impressed. Vicious Cycle is so far, doing the EDF name justice. Yeah, I miss the retro-futuristic visual style of the Sandlot-developed games, but what's here is updated nicely with faster gameplay, better animations and that nice sense of stuff going *BOOM* the EDF games all share. My minor gripes: MORE and more varied voice comments would be nice.Trying to replicate the cheesy charm of the older games doesn't quite work with the more "serious" style EDFIA is going for. Also, a few more enemies on screen in later gameplay movies would be nice just to see what the engine is really capable of. I'm not quite getting that "Eek! Overwhelmed" feeling found in the crazier missions from the older games. I guess we'll have to see what's what when D3Publisher updates us with new movies and screens, right?

Video # 2 is below the jump, by the way.

Gallery Update: Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon

So far, so good and a LOT of changes in the visual style from the older games. That's a nice new controllable mech from one of the game's loading screens above. The two gameplay movies I'll post later show off much better character animation and some nice visual effects, but I do miss Pale Wing's cute getup and the bigger, slower moving shiny Hectors. That and a few other things (such as seeing more enemies onscreen in future builds), but overall, I'm excited at how well the game is looking with quite a while to go before its Spring 2011 launch. More EDFIA updates as they come in - stay tuned...

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Teaser Trailer

This EDFIA teaser packs in 38 seconds of suspense while lending itself to as few minutes of questions. If it's created using the upcoming game's engine, I like the elements not found in the Sandlot-developed EDF titles such as the flames coming from buildings, exploding vehicles and blowing debris. That giant metal spider is a great touch, as are the redesigned spider models and better animation from those screaming civilians. OK, I'm sold - just get me some actual gameplay footage along with full details on all the game modes and I'll be even more giddy.

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon Update: No Sandlot (!), BUT It's Still Going To Be A Blast

In only slightly shocking news (well, to some of you out there - I predicted this a few weeks back), Earth Defense Force series creator Sandlot is not involved in the development of the upcoming Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon. Instead, D3 has announced that veteran developer Vicious Cycle (Dead Head Fred, The Return of Matt Hazard) has taken on programming duty for the upcoming third-person shooter set for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as a Spring 2011 release. The company's Vicious Engine is quite a versatile one, so I'm expecting the game to be a more than worthy expansion to the groundwork laid by Sandlot.

Breaking down the announcement piece by piece, let's start with the cover art:

Excellently done and it's nice how it's a riff on the cover to EDF 2017 (I see flying ants or wasps are back in the mix - yes!). So far, so good...

As for the developer... Even if you've never heard of Vicious Cycle, I'll bet you've probably played some of their games...