While Alien Space by Owens Rodriguez may look like your typical twin-stick shooter with upgrades, don't be fooled in to thinking it's the same as the usual bunch with passive and suicidal AI enemies that can't wait to be blown away. These enemies can't wait to blow YOU away and they'll use everything you have at your disposal to do it.

The controls are standard for a twin-stick, with movement on one stick and aiming/firing on another and players can switch between a primary and secondary weapon to sweep away their opponents. Your smaller secondary weapon runs off a slowly replenishing power source, however it's unlikely to make much of a dent on larger enemies. This is where your primary weapons step in, but instead of regenerating power it'll eat up a limited supply of ammunition that you'll need to carefully manage. Asteroids of various sizes also get in the way, but if you break them down you'll find bonuses to replenish your shields and weapons as well as lives to give you one more chance.

Clever use of lighting and special effects hides the somewhat limited detail in the 3D models used in Alien Space, but the trade-off is a game that remains fast and frantic no matter what gets thrown around the screen. Players have access to various weapons that can be interchanged between levels, though each one will need to be upgraded independently, so you'll need to choose your weapons well. Making your way through the 30 available levels is no simple task, but should you fail you can always restart from a later level and pick new upgrades.

Alien Space doesn't quite revolutionize the twin-stick shooter, but it holds its ground with the best of the pack and those after a serious challenge will appreciate its no-holds-barred style.