Hands on Earth Defense Force X

D3 Publisher turned some heads when they announced they were bringing the Earth Defense Force X to North America. The EDF series was only released in Japan on the Playstation 2 under their Simple 2000 label. The third game in the series moved on to the Xbox 360 and we’re getting that renamed as Earth Defense Force X. In Earth Defense Force X your mission is to protect the planet from an invasion of giant ants, spiders and robots. It’s a simple game to play, where you blast away everything in a level with your two guns. Weapons range from machine guns, to rocket launchers and the final weapon is a nuke shooting gun. Your character can carry two weapons and alternate between them. When you blow away giant ants they drop armor, which increases your HP by one point and weapon symbols that unlock new weapons. There are 400 different weapons to collect, but they are really a variation of the seven different types. Earth Defense Force X isn’t Gears of War, nor does it try to be. It is a campy, arcade game that pays homage to giant monster movies with the simple goal of destroying everything in sight. Imagine Dynasty Warriors style of gameplay, now replace swords with guns and armored warriors with huge ants. That’s pretty much what Earth Defense Force X is. To keep the feel of the game, the localization team is considering leaving the Japanese voice acting in Earth Defense Force X. It’s a fun game to play in short bursts or when you have a friend around. The success of Earth Defense Force X really relies on one thing, the price. There is no way anyone would recommend Earth Defense Force X if it had a $60 price point. D3 Publisher knows this, but they haven’t announced what price Earth Defense Force X is going to come out at. How much is shooting giant ants worth? Maybe $30 or so. Hopefully D3 Publisher will set the USA release around that price point.