Alien Soldier (Mega Drive)

Alien Storm by Sega based on the arcade hit in 1990.

Story

This is a game where you fight and shoot Aliens a little like the Aliens extravaganza we have nowadays like Aliens vs. predator. The game came in 91 so it's very primitive, but I still find the game fun. There some humor, action and blend of third person and first person shooter perspectives that make it fun. The scenes too with human beings transformed into mini aliens also made me laugh reminding me a bit of Men in Black.

Graphics ***

The graphics are pretty good making use of characterized sprites, and the Genesis 16bit
graphics.

The characters in the game consists of two futuristric warriors and one robot and they look pretty cool. The aliens look like aliens, pretty scary, they look like Aliens would and the design of the bosses is good along with the UFO's that show up in the game.
There is a pretty good variety of aliens, like I said, the minialies are small but deadly attacking in packs, while larger Aliens while slower can
do much more damage.

Not too much in the way blood though, you basically shoot the aliens and they blow up but still the graphics were good.

Sound and Muisc ****

Well the soundtrack is pure rock, and stereo this is when the Genesis trying to give us that "ARCADE" feeling it boasted about used it's fm stereo capabilities. The sound ain't too shabby too, when you blow up aliens, it makes a big whhoosh sound. You also get lifelife screams from the hostages and people who are attacked by aliens.

Control ***

Control is pretty simple Every alien fighter has their own weapon. The male has an electric gun and a dash. The woman has a laser beam and the Robot guy has a metallic whip to kill aliens. One thing though is that every fighter has a secret weapon, the secret weapons is basically a nuke weapon where if you the press the button you can send down a huge nuke and blow up everything on the screen. This was a common thing in some Genesis games like "Streets of Rage" and "Dynamite Duke". This comes
in very handy, because you run on limited ammo and although you get powersup to boost your ammo, the nuke saves you a bunch of wasted ammo.

You can also to save ammo use a shoulder tackle to down the aliens, this too comes in handy when you find yourself being cornered by too many aliens. The only thing missing here is probably a body slam move or something like that where you could have thrown one aliens against another ala "Double Dragon" that would have been cool, but control is still pretty polished.

Challenge ***

Challenge is good, you get three continues and youll probably use them all here. The aliens at first come of slow like zombies making them easy to hit and kill, but as you move thrown the levels, theyll move faster and faster, so aiming , dodging and knocking them down is going be crucial. The bosses while theyre not really tough can be, some of them morph into a second alien, so some of the bosses you will fight twice at the very least. The fact that you got to conserve ammo too also add to the difficulty level.

So this game in short is pretty challenging.

Replay Value ***

Well there are some nice extras in the game. Alien Storm like many Genesis game had a test mode sequence before the game where you play out and beta tests many areas. At the menu screen, you have the choice to play the standard game, or play 1 Player against the 2nd Player. You can also do a sound test , trying out all the sound voices in the game which was all right.

Recommended- Yes.

This is a pretty cool Aliens shooter game loaded with some pretty cool action levels.
The game is pretty tough and comes with some surprises. The control is pretty good
and flexible, the sound is decent and the graphics isn’t too bad. If your into third
person shooters, then you want to give the game a try.

I would especially recommend playing side by side with a buddy in team mode as you can get farther in the game and have more fun doing it.