Wikipedia:Featured article review/Space Invaders/archive1

=[[Space Invaders]]=

:Notified: Guyinblack25, WikiProject Video games, WikiProject Science Fiction, WikiProject Japan Noticed: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Space_Invaders&diff=prev&oldid=1016570402 2021-04-07] [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ASpace_Invaders&diff=1290847397&oldid=1281296767 2025-05-17]

I am nominating this featured article for review because the later parts of the article have small, one-or-two sentence paragraphs that should be reformatted better, and the "Remakes and sequels" section is quite long and should either be summarised more effectively or broken up with headings. The game's reception and rankings sections suffer from the "X says Y" pattern. There are unreliable sources like "Discogs" used in the article and some uncited statements. An orange "irrelevant references to pop culture" banner is at the top of "In popular culture" Z1720 (talk) 02:19, 16 June 2025 (UTC)

Comment The article seriously needs a split to Space Invaders (series), where information on the (quite large) series of Space Invaders games can be shown. The original game is probably still famous enough to be primary topic though. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 02:26, 16 June 2025 (UTC)

::The article has become quite crufty over the years, but I think it's salvageable. It will take time though, as my free time has been drying up. As always, any help (especially with copy editing) would be appreciated.

::Regarding a series article, I don't think there's enough content in reliable sources to warrant one; I think it would be too derivative of the original game article. Maybe there have been new developments during my retirement, but except for a few special reimaginings/crossovers, the basic premise and gameplay of all the sequels are very similar; the later versions mainly just add a new twist or gimmick. So much so that the list of games will tell you the relevant information. Happy to be proven wrong if the reliable sources are there though. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 04:49, 16 June 2025 (UTC))

:::There's SIGCOV of the entire series [https://archive.org/details/retro-gamer-the-history-of-videogames-second-edition-2022/page/34/mode/2up here], the article goes indepth about the entire series and not just the first game. Some more [https://archive.org/details/retro-gamer-uk-books/Retro%20Gamer%20-%20Book%20of%20Arcade%20Classics%207th%20Ed%20(2022)/page/116/mode/2up here], albeit the same publication. However, there is also SIGCOV of the series [https://archive.org/details/the-ultimate-giuide-to-classic-gaming/page/104/mode/2up here] as well. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 05:43, 16 June 2025 (UTC)

::::Thanks for those; they are new to me and will help with the clean up. However, they are quite similar in scope/breadth to the other coverage I saw when I first researched the game for its GAN and FAC back in 2008. The coverage—about development, reception, impact, and legacy—always leans heavy towards the original game. Occasionally there's full coverage that focuses on a specific port or remake (e.g., Space Invaders (Atari 2600 video game), Space Invaders DX, and Space Invaders Infinity Gene), but the sequels and remakes are mostly just mentioned that they exist with a brief description of how they were slightly different from the original. There's a reason why of the dozens of releases, very few have Wikipedia articles. While the original was certainly groundbreaking, the series as a whole isn't very deep compared to most other series. That's why List of Space Invaders video games was created, to give the many non-notable sequels and remakes a home. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 22:22, 16 June 2025 (UTC))

:::::I continue to believe the series is independently notable of the first game, and not just as a list. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the series' games were notable and just don't have articles due to a lack of interest from editors. One example? Super Space Invaders, which got [https://www.mobygames.com/game/3881/taitos-super-space-invaders/reviews/ many, many reviews] yet somehow still lacks an article. Space Invaders Evolution is also notable, but apparently ignored probably because most of the reviews are in print. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 05:53, 17 June 2025 (UTC)

::::::I agree that a few more articles about the individual games could likely be created. However, a few observations about the coverage I've seen:

::::::* Reception content likely exists for more of the games, but development information is rarely there or at best sparse. (Not a reason to not create individual articles, but this is a hindrance for a comprehensive series article.)

::::::* Among the reliable sources, the focus is typically on the original game rather than discussing the series as a whole, which is understandable because the gameplay is very basic (albeit timeless), so the games in the series lacks the depth of other video games that came later. And Taito has leaned into the basic gameplay design very successfully over the decades, but aside from a few exceptions, it did not deviate far from the basic design.

::::::* Similar to the above point, coverage of the impact and legacy focuses almost exclusively on the original's impact. Maybe the authors used the title of original interchangeably with the series title, but so many examples (Invader's graffiti art, media parodies, inspired music, etc.) very clearly draw from the original.

::::::* In short, a series article would read too much like an article about the original, but with the information reordered differently in a series format. I.e., it would not add much new information.

::::::Again, happy to be proven wrong if the reliable sources are there for the series as a whole, but as of now, I don't see the coverage being there. Maybe I'll change my tune if I come across sufficient sourcing while cleaning up this article. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 13:29, 17 June 2025 (UTC))

Question - does anyone have strong feelings about the timeline in the Remakes and sequels section? While it helps convey the number of releases over time, it is super long and seems excessive when we already have a list article. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 13:32, 17 June 2025 (UTC))
:Personally I'd remove it. Duplicates what List of Space Invaders video games does, but without sources and kind of its a bit of a space hog on the article that makes it a bit hard to read in desktop mode. Andrzejbanas (talk) 18:59, 18 June 2025 (UTC)