I might have died a few times but I finally finished what I think has been the most fun in a video game I’ve had since I first played Star Wars (the sit down version) in the arcade. Oh there have been many games in between Star Wars and Destroy All Humans that I’ve enjoyed over the years–but rarely do a games have the charm or the thought behind them to make them worthwhile. OK, so I love video games and so do you–we all have our favorites. Destroy All Humans just made my top ten.

The charm of Destroy All Humans is that it is modeled after the UFO B-Movie era of the 1950s. Your character takes orders from an overlord that sounds like Invader Zim. You can read peoples minds (and we’re talking adult content related to the 50s here, folks), abduct them and destroy the homes they live in. You can vaporize the humans with a variety of weapons. You can board your UFO and squash their puny little city. Your character is a crass, Jack Nicholson-type with no tolerance for the Monkey race that currently inhabits the Earth. I think the people that made this really know their alien lore. To include B-Movie elements, pop-culture elements (Invader Zim) and respect recent comedic remakes like Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks and roll them all up into one funny, exciting and very playable game is rare.

The PS2 has been out for a long time now. The PS3 is just around the corner (albeit a very large corner). Originally, I received my PS2 as a gift at Christmas time five years ago. There were only a couple of games I was intersted in playing at the time, but I had a lot of PS1 games that can be played on the PS2 also so it seemed a logical choice. I ended up buying more PS1 titles for my PS2 because they had dropped in price. Many titles I own for the PS2 have either made it to ‘Classic’ status or have been given to me as gifts. There are simply not many console games that compelled me to run out and drop $50–just to play the latest fad. And half the time–the titles turn out not to be worth it. I have many of the staples though: Katamari Damacy, GTAIII, GTAVC and even San Andreas. I have Gran Turismo 3 and 4. I have Battlestar Galactica–a beautifully difficult game along with the marginal Defender remake. I have Tetris Worlds, all of the Midway Classics, the Taito Classics and anything retro. There is nothing like reducing your 32 bit PS2 to a killer 8 bit arcade machine. I’m kind of a stinge when it comes to buying new games–that is exactly why I’m now writing about a game I finally finished that’s over a year old.

I bought Destroy All Humans used. I played it a little over the last three weeks and finally finished. It has a few good twists but most importantly when you beat the game there is a great pay-off with a large cut-scene at the end followed by the game credits and some incredible music. The soundtrack is available on iTunes and in your local stores. It even includes the ‘hold music’ you experience when you leave Crypto standing too long in one place. I highly recommend the game and soundtrack!