Invasion of the Angora-fetish Transvestites from the Graveyards of Jupiter

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

One of the first things that happens when Invasion (this year's entrant in the traditional comp sub-contest of "I-have-a-longer-sillier-name-than-you") begins is that it plays a song with a creeping bass line and a Shirley-Manson-like female vocalist. "Hey," I thought, pleased, "that sounds a lot like Garbage!" Little did I suspect how closely that comment would come to resemble my assessment of the game as a whole. Invasion claims to be "an interactive tribute to everything Ed Wood", the famously awful director of such cinematic nadirs as Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda. This, you might think, would give it some wiggle room in the quality arena. It turns out, though, that there's "entertainingly bad" and then there's just "bad", and sad to say, Invasion falls into the latter category.