Every Extend
By Simon Coong / March 13, 2009
When it comes to shooting games, PC gamers have always been spoiled for choice. Not only are there a handful of decent arcade ports available (G Darius, Raiden III, and the second and third Shikigami games), but there is also the emulation scene, with thousands of games on dozens of emulated systems. You can't really complain about lack of choice if you're an STG fan.
However, for those savvy enough to do a bit of searching, there is also a homebrew scene waiting to be explored. Many homebrew games take on completely new styles; many are homages to designs of past and present; many are subversions of classic designs, taking ideas from different games and twisting them into something that appears familiar and yet isn't familiar at all. Cho Ren Sha, Parsec 47, the Touhou series... these games and many others like them are out there waiting to be discovered.
In March 2004, a Japanese programmer named OMEGA released a new game to the public, called Every Extend. Despite being as far removed from a "shooting game" as a game can get while still remaining close to the genre, and very minimal in appearance, its simple controls and sparse audiovisual design mask the depth and addictive qualities of its mechanics.
In essence, you take control of a limited stock of remote-controlled bombs, and your task is to time your self-destruction to cause a chain reaction of explosions -- the larger the chain, the greater your bonuses. Now, the fact that you have a finite stock of bombs to use -- which can only be "extended" by passing progressively increasing score milestones -- coupled with the fact that you are working against a strict time limit, imbues the game with a great sense of urgency. You're always looking for the next big chain by purposely allowing the screen to fill with enemies, and every large chain you bag comes with a fleeting sense of relief and satisfaction; you kick yourself for missing every large chain that passes you by.
Thankfully the game gives you some assistance in gaining those big scores: pink items called Quickens speed up the movement, appearance rate and size of enemy groups, boosting your chain potential greatly; medium-sized enemies drop yellow items that add ten seconds to your time (which are handy when you consider each accidental death knocks five seconds off that time); and many enemy formations come with a green-coloured enemy which drops a score bonus item when destroyed, which increases in value the more you collect on your current life. There are also quite a number of little advanced tricks to be exploited, such as the methods to getting more than six Quickens, and tricks for continuing a chain even after the last explosion has dissipated, that can extend the life of the game for advanced players.
However, despite its (deceptively) simple style, Every Extend pretty much flew under everyone's radar. Admittedly, it's not much to look at, being very abstract with a multi-pointed "cursor" representing your remote-controlled bombs, slowly rotating formations of cubes for enemies and some pretty plain backgrounds. Musically, it's also quite sparse, with some ambient dance-like background music providing some noise. And the mechanics, while being very simple to understand, will take quite you a while to master to an advanced level, and many players will find themselves hitting the steepest part of the difficulty curve long before they manage to curb that desire to detonate at the slightest hint of danger.
The fact that there are only two "stages" (classed by difficulty: Light and Heavy modes), will definitely put off many people who are looking for a nice long game, too. But in all fairness, this wasn't designed to be a "full" game with several stages and thirty minutes of play per run; it was designed to be a quick score attack blast, with each run lasting around five minutes, and it definitely succeeds as such.
Also, bearing in mind that it has to compete with infinitely more popular and well-known games such as the works of Kenta Cho and ZUN, it's easy to see why it has a loyal but ultimately very small following. That's a shame: players who love a good score chase, and are fairly open with their tastes in games, should seek this one out.
Simon Coong runs Namakoteam!, a gathering point for some of the UK's best STG players. Thanks to ZEX for the superplays.