2007's Earth Defense Force 2017 ranks as one of my favorite multiplayer experiences on the Xbox 360. Pitting an army of tiny (but heavily armed) humans against massive waves of gigantic insects, the EDF games have a uniquely charming appeal, despite their low-rent aesthetics. Co-op play in EDF 2017 required frantic communication with an experienced teammate in order to survive its screen-filling enemy swarms, and few games released in the years since matched its impressive sense of scale and array of powerful explosive weaponry. It wasn't perfect, though - its missions followed a simple and repetitive structure, and the lack of online multiplayer stung.

The recent spinoff game Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon promised a glorious return for the series, but ended up being a crushing disappointment instead. Insect Armageddon's inexperienced development team misunderstood the series' appeal, replacing EDF's defining elements with puny weapons, boring objectives, and straightforward enemy encounters.

Now, Earth Defense Force 2025 puts the series back on track, returning development duties to franchise creator Sandlot and delivering the goofiest bug-blasting action this side of Starship Troopers. While much of EDF 2025's content treads familiar terrain, it has enough new features and improvements to make it a worthy successor to one of this generation's greatest cult classics.