Earth Defense Force 2017 [X360]

You're running down the street, massive gun in hand, while ships the size of small planetoids hover in the sky. Giant ants and spiders are ravaging the city, climbing buildings and masticating the populace. You fire off a rocket, but instead of blowing up the enemy, it takes down the building the gargantuan ant was crawling on. No worries -- snag an armor pick-up, then move on and hope you hit the target next time. And please, enjoy your career as part of Earth Defense Force 2017.

D3Publisher's Japanese import is about as simple as they come. Third person shooter. Sci-fi enemies right out of a B movie: ants, spiders, UFOs, robots. Loads of guns that never run out of ammo. You'll run and shoot through dozens of levels, earning more health and new weapons while decimating wave after wave of alien invaders.

And that's it. There's no real plot, beyond the need to survive. Other members of the Earth Defense Force will join you in battle, but don't worry about preserving them. Or do, since their incessant cornball dialogue is hilarious for at least 20 levels. For that matter, don't worry about saving the population (not that you can actively kill them) or the city buildings.

In fact, be sure to destroy all the buildings. In part because they look funny falling in predetermined patterns. But more because you can: for a defending force, the rules are surprisingly lax when it comes to saving local infrastructure. A single rocket will take down the biggest building, and there's nothing quite as satisfying as nailing a clone of the space needle when it's crawling with alien bugs. And once you've got some powerful gear, it's easier to avoid the flaming space acid thrown from a big insect's hindquarters when you've got room to maneuver.

Compared to Ghost Recon or most other 360 titles, EDF doesn't look like much, but it's got a definite appeal. Each level is a free-roaming affair, with wide city maps featuring parks, buildings of varying scale, bridges and waterways, and almost all of it blows up. The level ends when the last alien is dead; fortunately a handy radar shows friends, foes, and that one pickup you missed. On the downside, your running speed isn't very high, so backtracking for a missed item takes time.