Maybe it’s the seizure inducing flashing lights or perhaps it’s the pulsing rave music that haves me looking for glow sticks to wave in the air, but something about Every Extend Extra Extreme makes me feel like I should be on ecstasy. E4 is not particularly difficult, nor is it very immersive, but the enjoyment of the game comes with making chains of obscene lengths and this can become addictive.
Initially the game starts out slow, the music is slow and the density of the enemies is low and you have a full clock. The object is to blow up your “ship” (which resembles a reticule from a FPS) before your shield runs down and you come into contact with an enemy. When you self-destruct your ship, a chain reaction begins and surrounding enemies also explode, then that causes other nearby enemies to explode and so on. After a colored enemy explodes they will drop one of four possible power-ups based on their color. Yellow enemies drop a power-up which adds time to the overall game clock. Picking up a blue power-up will increase the multiplier. A purple power-up, called Quicken, speeds up the pace of the game. The white-colored power-up increases the length of time your shield will remain active.
The object of the game is to make a high score (or gain achievements), which gets into the trillions, by surviving for as long as possible while collecting the above mentioned power-ups to boost multipliers. Players have to find a good balance of allowing an explosive chain to continue versus ceasing the chain early and collecting power-ups before self-destructing again. Clear your calendar, the Unlimited and Revenge modes can last a long time. Once you max out on Quicken at 100 the game becomes super redundant (more than it is already) and the challenge becomes keeping the clock from reaching zero by collecting the yellow power-ups. This isn’t too hard if you keep an eye on your shield in between chains. I had a game on the Unlimited mode which lasted over 30 minutes, and really I started getting bored once the speed of the game was maxed out. I became indifferent on whether the game continued or ended.
The hypnotic visuals and music coupled with the fact that the XBOX controller vibrates to the beat of the music makes E4 more bearable. The game is fun at first, but the novelty quickly wears off, yet somehow the game remains addictive. The different game modes and the ability to pick different songs and appearances of the enemies increase the replay value a little, but still leave a lot to be desired. Now, take into consideration it’s an XBOX Live Arcade game and inexpensive and you wind up with an addicting, sensory overload that provides an enjoyable way to spend time away from Halo 3.
