Alien vs Predator
Arcade
Nostalgia Factor:
Alien vs Predator is a game I’ve been aware of since it was released back in 1994. I would never get the chance to play this game, however, as I never encountered the arcade unit “out in the wild”. 28 years (wow) after its initial release, I was finally able to sit down and play this game on my Retro Pie. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this game, and in fact I’ve even heard it referred to as one of the greatest beat ‘em ups of the 90s. Would Alien vs Predator live up to those lofty expectations? Let’s find out!
Story:
This game’s story is a doozy. An Alien ship has crash landed in the middle of “San Drad” California. Aliens begin to run amok, killing everything in sight. An elite military team is sent in to destroy the Alien threat, led by Dutch Schaefer and Linn Kurosawa. Apparently this is the same Arnold Schwarzenegger Dutch from the original Predator movie, but this time around his strength has been supplemented by cyborg implants. Dutch and Linn are about to be overwhelmed by the Aliens when a group of Predators appears and saves them from certain death.
The Predators join the human fighters as they attempt to track down the Alien queen and snuff out the Alien threat once and for all. You defeat the queen relatively early in the game. I remember thinking “oh wow, this must be a pretty short game” after emerging from the battle victorious. But no. The game’s story takes a twist as humanity becomes the game’s new enemy. Weyland-Tutani, the villainous corporation from the Alien films, does Weyland-Tutani things by capturing Aliens and performing experiments on them in order to weaponize them. You and your ragtag group take the battle to Weyland-Tutani, and eventually into space. The fighting ends when you defeat the big bad boss man, crashing his ship into San Drad and destroying all remnants of the Alien invasion once and for all.
Overall it’s a pretty ridiculous story, but it works. It’s like a comic book come to life. One thing I don’t quite understand is how the Predators seem to be able to speak perfect English, which is something I’ve never seen in any other movies, games, or comics with Predators in them. They can mimic small human words or phrases, sure. But carry on full conversations? Hmm…
Gameplay:
This is definitely one of the most over-the-top beat ‘em ups I have played. You start out with a choice of four characters: your two humans and your two Predators. As you play you will notice you only have three buttons at your disposal: attack, jump, and shoot. At first glance this appears to be your typical TMNT or Final Fight-ish beat ‘em up. You are on a 3D plane. You can move up and down, in addition to left and right. The attack button melee attacks your enemies. The jump button makes your character jump. Jump and hit the attack button to perform a jumping attack. Standard beat ‘em up stuff, right?
What sets Alien vs Predator apart is the ability to use weapons. I’m not talking about picking up knives, guns, or bombs that your enemies drop (although you can certainly still do that in this game). I’m talking about how each of your characters comes equipped with a gun or a projectile weapon of some sort. For the most part, these weapons don’t cause a whole lot of damage. I mainly pulled them out either when I was surrounded or when I was trying to play defense. Although they don’t do a whole lot of damage to your foes, they are good for knocking them to the ground and allowing you to catch your breath for a second. You can’t overuse these weapons, though, as they will overheat and you then have to sit there and wait for them to recharge before you can use them again.
As you progress through the game you’ll collect a number of pick-ups. Some of these items allow you to fire your weapon for ten seconds with no risk of it overheating. Other items include your standard health and points items. There are probably some other items that are escaping my memory, but I am sure you get the drift. If you hit all three buttons at the same time (jump, attack, and shoot), your character unleashes a powerful attack that throws all your enemies back and allows you to regroup for a moment. As normal with this type of game, using this move drains a little bit of your health meter.
There’s not much else I can say about this title’s gameplay that sets it apart from other beat ‘em ups of the time – other than that this game is VERY chaotic. Tons of enemies onscreen. Explosions. Chaos. This is like Final Fight on steroids. The action just never lets up.
Graphics:
Even though this is a 28 year old game, it is still really nice looking. It’s so bright and colorful. It’s like a comic book or a cartoon brought to life. The characters are crisp and jump off the screen. Everything’s well animated. Despite all the chaos onscreen, the game never slows down one tiny bit. I enjoy the artwork in the little story sequences too. The makers of this game definitely have created something to be proud about. 28 years later and this game looks just as good as ever.
Sound:
I can’t say this game sounds as good as it looks. There’s almost no memorable musical tracks to be found here, nothing that stuck in my head after I finished the game. The music fit what was happening onscreen, sure, but I can’t say it was catchy or memorable in any way whatsoever. Same with the sound effects, although I do love how they used the exact sound of the Marine assault rifle from Aliens in this movie. It’s such an iconic sound, and I’m glad it was included here.
Overall:
Don’t get me wrong, this is a really fun game but I’m not so sure I’d put it on my beat ‘em up Mount Rushmore. The TMNT games, Final Fight, X-Men, the Simpsons, Double Dragon, Captain America and the Avengers – I think I had a better time with all of those titles than I did with this one. Now those games I have nostalgic feelings attached to, so maybe that is affecting my judgment a little bit here. I don’t have those same nostalgic feelings about Alien vs Predator as I do for those other games.
That said, I do feel as if nostalgia is important in this case, since all these games are so similar and do everything basically the same. Since they are all so similar, a lot of it is going to come down to what you played as a kid or what you grew up with – whether you think that’s fair or not. If I had grown up with this game instead of, say, X-Men, I might be saying the exact same thing about X-Men I’m saying about AVP. Am I rambling? Am I making sense? I feel like I’m not making any sense.
All in all, this is a really fun beat ‘em up. It looks great. The story is over the top and fabulous. It’s filled with nonstop action and explosions. I’d encourage anyone interested in the genre to give it a shot. I won’t even argue with those who say that this is the best beat ‘em up ever made. While I don’t agree, I can totally see where they might be coming from – especially if they have fun, nostalgic memories attached to this game. I wish I could say I did, but I don’t.
Final Score:
B
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