Aliens
Arcade
Nostalgia Factor:
On this blog I’ve made note of the fact that I recently discovered how to work video game emulators. One of the best things about emulators is the ability to go back and play games that I missed out on when I was younger. Aliens is one of those games. Not only did I not play Aliens as a kid, I had never even heard of it before. That changed when I was perusing a retro video game group on Facebook. I saw some screenshots of the game and read the comments praising the game, and I knew instantly that I had to check it out. Would I like it? Let’s find out.
Story:
This game loosely follows the plot of the ’86 movie Aliens. And when I say loosely, I mean loosely. I guess the basics are there: You arrive at the colony on LV-426, you shoot the shit out of a ton of aliens, and then you kill the queen at the end using that yellow mechanical suit thingy.
A lot has been added to the game that was not seen in the movie. Different alien types, different weapons, different scenarios. Do you remember the part of the movie where Ripley zooms along on a rail car, blasting dozens of Aliens that swarm her way? What about the part where she fights a giant bubble-shooting alien? Maybe the part where she is on an elevator and has to kill all the aliens trying to chew through the cable lines? Of course not, none of this happens in the movie. But you can’t fault the game for adding content. If it stuck solely to the events of the film it would not allow for any kind of creative flexibility and would probably make for a very dull game.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is simple but effective: shoot aliens and don’t allow yourself to be killed. This game differs from other shooters like Contra in the way that it incorporates 3D playing fields for your character to traverse– almost like a TMNT or Final Fight-esque beat ‘em up. You have two attack buttons – you can fire high or you can fire low. I found myself firing high most of the time as you can move quicker from this position. Also, there aren’t many enemies that hang out low to the ground, but when you do encounter them (like facehuggers) you can see them coming a mile away.
You collect power-ups as you play, and these power-ups increase your weapon’s firepower. If you die you go back to your basic pea-shooter weapon, so when you get a new weapon upgrade you want to hang onto it as long as possible.
The game is comprised of six stages, most of which have bosses characters at the end of them. The game as a whole I didn’t find too overly difficult. I’d say if I was playing in the arcade it would have taken about three or four dollars for me to finish this game. Most of my deaths occurred during boss battles, most of which boiled down to wars of attrition. In particular, the second to last Alien queen boss (the one with the sacs still attached). I could not for the life of me develop a good strategy for fighting this character, and found myself just standing there spamming the attack button while taking damage and dying over and over again. I imagine this probably would have angered me if I was plugging actual quarters into an arcade unit. On an emulator with unlimited continues, it is far less frustrating.
Graphics:
I think this game looks really good. It was released in 1990, and certainly looks better than any NES or Genesis games released in that general timeframe. I think it looks better than most of that era’s arcade titles too. The environments are varied and unique. There are a ton of different enemy types to fight. And I just really love how vibrant and colorful everything looks. Who would have thought such a dark and drab looking movie would have inspired such a colorful looking game?
Sound:
I can’t say I remember much of anything about the game’s music or sound effects, and I even played through this game twice before sitting down to write this review. I was too caught up in all the fast paced action to give the game’s sound much mind. It was… fine, I suppose. I don’t recall having any complaints. It does the job – nothing more, nothing less. That’s really all I can say about it.
Overall:
This is a really short game. You can beat it in 20 or 30 minutes easily. Since I was using an emulator, there was never a moment where I had to worry about running out of lives or continues. I was able to just sit back and enjoy the game for what it is. And it’s a fun game! I can’t really say anything bad about it. It’s fast paced, it looks nice, and the run and gun action is a lot of fun. I challenge anyone who grew up playing classic retro video games to sit back and say that this game sucks. They can’t, because it doesn’t. The only criticism I have to offer is, again, on the game’s length. If I had bought this as a full price video game for 50 or 60 bucks I would feel VERY ripped off. There’s not much replay value to be found here either. Beat the game once, you’ve seen everything there is to see in the game. Aliens is good for EXACTLY what it is – a short, relatively easy shoot ‘em up that allows you to kill some aliens and blow off some steam. If you’re looking for anything groundbreaking or world-changing, you’re coming to the wrong place.
Final Score:
B-
If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:
No comments:
Post a Comment