If you've ever watched an old school Godzilla movie, you already know what it feels like to play an Earth Defense Force game. Giant oversized creatures, lots and lots of destruction, and plenty of cheese make both the game and those movies equally "B." While Earth Defense Force 2017 was a title released early on in the Xbox 360 life cycle, it immediately gave the series a foothold in the West, where up until that point it was mostly unknown. Now some years later the game is being re-released on Sony's PlayStation Vita with cleaner graphics and enhanced co-op. Could Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable become an "A" title?
You are dropped into the boots of an EDF soldier tasked with defending Earth from an alien invasion. While the invasion initially starts off with giant ant enemies, things quickly progress with spaceships, robots, spiders, and giant mechanized vehicles all becoming targets to take down. You'll initially be armed with a simple machine gun and rocket launcher, but killing the thousands upon thousands of enemies will yield random weapon and armor drops. Post mission you'll unlock new and more powerful weapons to use in what becomes an addictive collection game. The weapons come in numerous varieties too - rockets, heat seeking missiles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and even tools like a bot that can heal allies are all found on the battlefield and all have a "better" version as well.
The missions themselves are pretty straight forward - it comes down to kill everything that moves. What makes EDF exciting is the sheer number of enemies and the scale of enemies thrown at you. Looking at a cityscape you'll see hundreds of giant ants crawling up and down buildings. The skies will be filled with UFOs that unleash dozens of flying aliens ships. Huge drop ships that take up city blocks will drop large robots that lumber at that height of skyscrapers. The best part about all of this is everything in EDF's world is destructible. Those ants on the building? Kiss them both goodbye. The UFO that crashed into the bridge? Better call a road crew. There's no such thing as collateral damage, it's all fair game.
Guns aren't the only thing at your disposal either, at times you'll find tanks, helicopters, hover bikes, and even mechs to assist you in the destruction of the Ravagers, the name for the alien race that is attacking earth. These small diversions are still a pain to control, but do deal plenty of damage. Speaking of controls, the dual analog sticks of the Vita work perfectly, and there's some minor optional touch screen controls for things like the camera.
With 50 some odd missions to play, including 7 brand new ones and over 150 weapons to collect across 6 difficulty levels - there's a lot here for the completionist. You'll have a hard time tackling anything above normal by yourself, and while the original game only features two player split-screen play on the Xbox, EDF 2017 Portable features four player co-op either online via PSN or locally via an AD-HOC connection.
While the co-op doesn't add anything specific, other than giving you another soldier on the battlefield, it does make the game significantly easier allowing you to tackle the harder difficulty levels and unlock better weapons. The good news is all weapons and progress earned in games as either the host or the guest will transfer back to your single player game.
While communication isn't exactly that important in a game where your only goal and strategy is shoot and don't be shot, it would have been nice to have seen support for voice chat. Instead we get a quirky, but surprisingly deep, pre-programmed text interface with 75 commands that can be accessed by category quickly with the D-Pad. The reality is, other than calling for help when you are down and yelling EDF before charging into every battle, it's just not used.
The chaos that occurs in Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable's co-op mode is beautiful. Horribly beautiful. It's the same kind of joy you get from blowing up a pile of old action figures with an M80. Watching four players fire triple rocket launchers into a giant group of spiders and seeing them careen and bounce all over the city is both hilarious and satisfying. This at its core is what makes the game so strangely addictive. The curiosity of just how much destruction can you cause and what weapon can you find that will cause it.
EDF 2017 Portable isn't without its problems, the biggest of which, is when the chaos really gets going - the frame rate really begins to chop - especially in co-op. It's not a deal breaker by any means, pinpoint aiming isn't exactly a requirement for Earth Defense Force, but it is annoying. Also the game is priced at $39.99 - which for a portable version of a 6 year old game seems a bit steep.
These minor issues aside, Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable reminded me why I put countless hours into the co-op of the Xbox 360 version of the game. It brought everything the original had to offer and even added a few bonuses like four player co-op. The levels and mission progression work perfectly for a portable game when you have 10 or 15 minutes to kill, which in a way, make the game feel like a natural fit for a portable system. The Vita isn't exactly brimming with a ton of titles to play, so the bottom line is - if you like mindless fun - pick this one up.
A code was provided by the publisher for the Co-Optimus review of Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable on the PlayStation Vita.