An HD version of the game has been remastered by Backbone Entertainment for Xbox Live Arcade with new four-player multiplayer modes and visualizer backgrounds by Jeff Minter, it was released on 6 May 2009 as a wrap-up to the 30th anniversary.

The player controls a cannon at the bottom of the display (Yellow on DS and PC, Silver on PSP and Purple on Xbox 360) - this can move left or right and fire.

To the top of the display formations of invaders appear - these must be shot for points and to avoid them destroying the players' cannon.

The invaders themselves have individual properties, such as firing lasers, splitting into duplicates or charging for the ground after being hit once.

Bonuses for higher scores can be obtained by doing as instructed by words that flash up on the background, such as hitting invaders of a particular color or particular type.

Shooting four invaders of the same color in a row awards one of four power-ups; bomb, broad shot, laser and shield.

Shooting that accesses the Bonus Round, in which a player is given a short time to complete a certain goal, such as defeating so many aliens.

Getting different combinations of colors can reap different bonuses, such as a roulette UFO that offers bonuses such as Freeze and Extra Player, changing all the aliens to the same color, or turning all enemies turn into UFOs that reap power ups after one hit.

Ranking mode does not feature these options, but allows players to post their scores on the online leaderboards.

The PSP version only supports multiplayer locally in Ad-Hoc mode, and each player must have their own game disc.

Some waves were made easier and changed entirely in some stages, due to making an appeal to newcomers as well as casual gamers.

Downloadable content was announced for the Xbox Live Arcade version of Space Invaders Extreme on June 17th, due on the 18th of the same month.

[17] 1UP.com called the single-player mode "engrossing" and GameSpot later concludes that "Space Invaders Extreme is a very good example of how to update a classic game".

[15][17] Both versions of Space Invaders Extreme were listed as the best shooter game for their respective consoles by IGN.

There is a large amount of new content, such as new stages, boss formations, time attack mode and a 'bingo' system.

Also, in Japan, a mini version was released to DSiWare called Space Invaders Extreme Z, which has no multiplayer or online WiFi rankings.