Space Invaders isn’t just one of the best alien invasion games of all time — it’s also one of the most influential games of all time. Period.
As a direct result, the premise of pushing back otherworldly invaders has always been well represented in video games. One such series is Earth Defense Force, which thrives in its notable commitment to visceral chaos and retro thrills, and Earth Defense Force 6 is taking the destruction to new heights.
Born in the early 2000s, the Earth Defense Force games were born as an offshoot of the multi-genre Simple series. They’re sci-fi third-person shooter games traditionally done on low budgets — something that, over time, has become a huge part of their charm. They follow the titular Earth Defense Force as they try to defend our planet from alien invasions. The stories are paper-thin (but often surprising), and the main appeal is the no-holds-barred action and destruction, which takes place as the puny humans hold their ground against hordes of all sorts of extraterrestrial enemies and whatnot, including far-too-big insectoids. They’re simplistic and campy entertainment at its best.
After a 2022 release in Japan and the promise of a Western release late last year, Earth Defense Force 6 is available now on PlayStation consoles as well as PC (Windows) via Steam. You can watch the short launch trailer below to get a taste of the chaos.
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In a series famous for not taking its continuity very seriously and rebooting quite often, as the main appeal is retelling in bigger and more outlandish ways how the EDF fights to take down the alien invaders, Earth Defense Force 6 is actually a direct follow-up to 2017’s Earth Defense Force 5 (2018 for North America and Europe). We won’t spoil all the details of what went down in that one — which you should totally play, too — but this sixth mainline entry takes place three years later, when the Primers (the main race of invaders) return to finish off a nearly exhausted Earth barely starting to rebuild to finish the job.
After having played through much of the sixth game (nearly 150 missions long with the base experience alone), it’s easy to see why Earth Defense Force continues to be carve out a successful niche.
In the face of increasingly bloated AAA game releases and an overcrowded indie space, AA titles that stick to their guns and iterate on formulas that have worked well in the past are shining more and more nowadays. Earth Defense Force 6 doesn’t break new ground because it knows it doesn’t need to. The alien threat is bigger, and so are your new weapons and vehicles. There are more missions and even more ways to replay them. You can go in solo or co-op. It just works and keeps amplifying its dizzying action to ridiculous levels until its engine nearly breaks apart.
It’s also the rare sort of modern game — an adjective that doesn’t represent its spirit at all — that’s easy to pick up and play for like 15 minutes. Everything, from the controls to the weapons to the (surprisingly long) progression system, is designed to waste as little of our time as possible. Sure, it’s not the deepest or best-looking game around, but you really shouldn’t come into the EDF series expecting anything but the direct opposite (in most aspects) of what a best-seller usually is nowadays. That said, distinct character classes with abilities and fun little gadgets are a thing in Earth Defense Force 6 too.
Fans of the best alien invasion movies and pulp sci-fi tales will find even more to love in Earth Defense Force 6, as the invaders quickly shift from giant frog aliens to ants — which shouldn’t be that big — to androids that feel ripped straight out of 20th-century comic books such as Amazing Stories. For veteran lovers of sci-fi tales that harken back to simpler times, the Earth Defense Force series is a remarkably sincere love letter to uncomplicated genre storytelling that may have been flying under their radar for too long.
Earth Defense Force 6’s Western release is currently available digital-only on PS4, PS5, and PC (Windows) via Steam.
