This game is pure dumb fun, well, actually it does have strategy - and lots of dice rolling, although to be fair despite having lots of dice rolling it isn’t just about luck, well there is a ton of luck involved, but I don’t care because this game has a story, and its heroes even have their own back stories.

If you have played Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game, the rules are pretty much the same with a bunch of changes to fit the fantastic theme of ’Mars Attacks’ style martians landing on earth in the 1940’s and inexplicably starting their invasion by attacking a travelling carnival in the backwoods of middle America.

Depending on the number of players, one or two of them control the martians, and one to four of them control the heroes, which include Angelica the Bearded Woman and Lucrezia the Contortionist. There are five mission cards, the simplest of which has the victory conditions of either killing 20 martians or 2 heroes, although in general the martians win if 3 heroes are killed. Fortunately if a hero is killed the player draws a replacement and continues playing (there are 8 heroes in the game).

The heroes have to run around the board searching for weapons, items and event cards in the buildings, while being chased, herded and corralled by martians. The heroes start out with a combat advantage over the martians, but if the martians assemble into packs of 3 they then get the advantage over the humans. So it is really important for the heroes to find equipment by searching in the buildings, but this takes time allowing the martians to build up their technology.

The martian player meanwhile has command points that he can spend on drawing cards, reinforcements, and bringing particular cards into play, like Martian Tech cards which upgrade martian armour and weaponry for example. As the game goes on the martians can become really powerful, with improved lasers and martian champions wandering around the board. A canny martian player usually has quite an advantage over novice players, or players that don’t cooperate or plan their attacks.

The dice mechanism for shooting is that you roll some dice and if you score any hits you remove martians (they die if they suffer one wound), if martians shoot at heroes they get to roll dice to dodge, and if they fail they suffer wounds until they are killed. Once in hand to hand combat both sides roll some dice, and whoever rolls highest wins, causing one wound to the opponent, ties result in a draw with no effect.

I love this game because of player’s reactions to cards that get played against them, or when they are reminded of rules that were explained at the start of the game, which they forgot and are now hampered and/or crippled by. Or when they realise how difficult it is to destroy a particular martian, or when a martian plays several cards one after the other and all of them are cancelled by the heroes.

Some have said it is too easy for the heroes to win, some have said it is too easy for the martians to win, some have said it is too random. The point is that the game is unpredictable, every game is different, and it feels like you are re-enacting a trashy B-movie. The heroes are usually up against the wall, desperately evading martians with the clock to global domination by tiny bulbous headed aliens ominously ticking.

Although there are not many missions, you can easily play through half the missions ten or twenty times without getting bored. The game is infinitely expandable as well, whether you buy expansions or make your own, as the game comes with a handful of tokens that you can make up your own rules for. Like a dungeon exploration game, it is easy to make up your own missions. The game includes rules on how you can mix Invasion from Outer Space with Last Night on Earth, which is an added bonus.

The most important issue is that we can’t decide on which sound effect to use for the martians. There is the classic ack ack, ack ack Ack Ack, ACK ACK ACK!!! Then you have the mwuk mwuk, mmwark, mk, muk. Lastly emit a high pitched whine while flicking your finger across your lips and you get slightly silly martian speak. Okay, maybe sound effects are beyond what most players are interested in, though it is worth mentioning that the game comes with a soundtrack on a cd.

In summary Invasion from Outer Space has a ton of really good quality components, solid plastic miniatures (that paint up well), playing cards, counters, dice and goofy stuff like a crashed flying saucer. The games play pretty quick, and it is a blast (of the death ray kind). If you are a fan of the Destroy All Humans series of games on the Playstation, you will love this. I do.