Do you like EDF? Then more E-D-F! It's Earth Defense Force.

Being played here on the ColecoVision. Just kidding. It's the PlayStation 5.

It's actually a PlayStation 4 game, but it requires the power of the PlayStation 5. There were like flames shooting out of the side of it. Probably should have that looked at.

Sergeant, the enemy is much stronger than you can imagine.

Before I get started, let's talk about that special moment in everyone's life. I'm not talking about falling in love or having kids or any of that crap. Kids just get in the way and wives yell at you. But Earth Defense Force is yours forever once you discover the magical powers of the greatest game franchise in the history of the universe.

It seems like a thousand years ago that I walked into that crappy GameStop and the kid behind the counter looked at me like I was crazy when I bought Earth Defense Force 2017 for the Xbox 360.

You could play Call of Duty. I could also suck, but I don't because I rock EDF.

Inform all bargain units. Detachment initialized.

And I fight for the freedom of Earth by shooting space bees with homing lasers.

I love how the game makes you feel like you're part of a larger conflict. It never gets old.

And as we all eagerly anticipate the Classic Game Room review of Earth Defense Force 6—yeah, there's a sixth one in Japan. Why do they get the good stuff first?

It's never too late to revisit the rest of this series. In particular, I love Earth Defense Force 5.

There's four characters to choose from, obviously Wingdiver. The best because she flies and she has homing lasers.

Our attacks are useless against the Golden Armor.

And yes, I've played this game a bit. Note the nearly 1,000 hit points. That took a while.

Though just because the game is silly, don't think it's easy. This one's really hard. There's like 110 missions.

And many of them will just absolutely overwhelm you past the easy difficulty, even with the best weapons.

When you find yourself surrounded or drowning in alien balls—that's a thing—you may want to rely on some co-op backup.

Split-screen co-op is crazy fun in this game and it's a good way to collect new weapons and armor as well.

You got four character classes to choose from. The Soldier is your basic all-purpose character. It's easier to get armor, and he has a lot of really powerful weapons.

Wingdiver is a bit more delicate, harder to level up, and if you get surrounded, you're screwed.

The Fencer is the big guy with, like, the multiple guns. He's tricky to use, as is the Air Raider, who summons vehicles. Those two are best for co-op.

If you're just getting into it, stick with Soldier or Wingdiver, because pretty much every mission ends the same way when you lose: you just find yourself overwhelmed.

And if for some reason you've never played this series, you plow your way through missions collecting armor and weapons.

You can increase the difficulty, which then drops—where the enemies then drop bigger, more powerful weapons.

So what you want to do is you want to find that one mission, like later in the game, when you can increase the difficulty to Hard, or Hardest, or Inferno, which will kill you instantly, and try to pick up that, like, one weapon that'll help you get through the rest of the game.

I don't have any advice on which mission that is.

Earth Defense Force 4 had that one level where you could hide on the palm tree and just shoot everything. You could, like, nuke them all from orbit.

I haven't found that yet in EDF 5.

There's so many weapons to collect throughout this game, and each character has their own weapons. And yeah, there's a bunch of repeats, but it's just endlessly entertaining.

And there's bonus mission packs with even stronger enemies.

Do you like red ants? Well, try the green ones or the gold ones. They suck.

What else can be said about Earth Defense Force 5? It's just one of the most fun games that I've ever played. The Sandlot games just keep getting better.

There's some spin-offs. You can check out Iron Rain. It's good, but this is better.

It plays really well on the PlayStation 4 or the PlayStation 5, and I'm eagerly anticipating getting my hands on the sixth one. I'm not sure if I can wait for the translation.

The only people who don't like EDF are people who hate fun. Do you hate fun? No.

Do you like fun? Then more fun.

Earth. Defense Force. Five.