I wanted to like this game, I really did. It's kinda cool and flashy, but the gameplay is terribly unbalanced. The unlimited game is entirely repetitive; it doesn't really get any harder. There's no challenge to playing it, either, you just hit the "explode" button before your shield runs out. No dodging, no aiming. The original Every Extend was much more subtle.

The shooting game R4 is a little better, but also hugely repetitive.

i think its a wonderful, trippy, contemplative and hypnotizing game.

i think its their best game since lumines.

im all over it.

devoid of anything resembling the delicate balance of risk and reward that makes the original every extend so compelling.

actually, the comparison to lumines is apt: both games are boring and lacking in challenge.

I love the original too, but this is an entirely different experience built on top of the same mechanic. Besides, every game need not be challenging (see also: fl0w, Animal Crossing) to be compelling. With such score based gameplay the challenge is really up to the player. Want a challenge? Try getting 100+ squares in Lumines' 60 second timed mode.

Or try to max your score in E4's 5 minute timed mode. In that case it does play a LITTLE more like the original because you really have to pick and choose your explosions and when to cancel chains and what items to pick up. Not quite up to the "challenge" of the original, but if you don't want to sit through a two hour 500 trillion point game, it's something...

Nowak, I agree that games don't have to be challenging to be compelling. Actually, I prefer easy games. But E4 doesn't have any change at all in the gameplay after two minutes into a level. It's totally flat. (Compare Space Giraffe, which manages to change and stay fresh every few levels while still playable at different levels of challenge).

The score based levels do give a challenge of sorts, but it's not clear there's much subtlety in doing better. Your score is entirely dominated by your beat timing and whether you slip and forget to explode before your shield runs out. If you do forget, then that game is over as far as scores go. But there's little incentive to risking it, so in the end the only reason to die and lose your bonus is if your attention wanders. Which mine does, apparently, after a few minutes. I'm lousy and beat timing, too. So I'm a big ol' fail at the two simple skills required :-)

The graphics are impressive. There's a whole lot of pixels flying around at 60FPS in 1080i, and I think it's antialiased, too.

The music disappointed me though. I loved the music in Lumines, Meteos, and of course Rez. Those levels have variation and changes in the music as you play, but in E4 it's the same 3 minute techno loop repeating endlessly.

Sorry to be so down on the game; I really like this kind of sensual overload and am glad to see this aesthetic coming back into games.

Don't be sorry for having a differing opinion! I actually agree with most of your points, but I just find E4 a nice confluence of things I like and I personally find it very playable. Your mileage may vary. (And on the flip side, I found Space Giraffe overly obtuse... and the sounds in that totally irritated me.)

(Also, I need to recheck but I do believe that the music track in E4 changes as you build up a combo. It's either subtle or I'm imagining it.)

really disappointing, it's just hours of super-particle-orgy until you get bored and realize your brain is mush.

there's nothing to learn -- since the chains last so long (well into the thousands once you get the speed up) whether you blow up enough "time bonuses" and (more important) "shields" is basically random, so it's pretty much rolling dice. with 2 minutes of cacophonous crash/snare explosions to sit through until you get to roll again.

if there are no shields dropped it's impossible to collect a useful number of "time extends", as the screen is totally coated in enemies.. this sucks since each chain can eat well over a minute of time.

was really fun for the first hour, once i realized it was all about collecting enough time-extends to keep going forever, it became ultra-boring/frustrating since that's totally random.

also, omega doesn't like it ;p

play it stoned.

The reviews are starting to trickle in. Mostly positive, but this negative one at Eurogamer captures more my feeling about the game, only far funnier than I could ever be.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/10/every_extend_extra_extreme_exp.php