Alien Syndrome Review

        This review is for the arcade version of Alien Syndrome as included as a bonus on the PS3 disc Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. I found many of the games in this collection to be a bit lackluster, but I felt some kind of connection to Alien Syndrome the second I started playing it. It is fun and has a great look to it. It somewhat reminds me of the PSP sequel of the same name and license that came out a few years back, but it is instantly more likable (although the 2^nd half of the PSP version is quite fun).

       It is a top down shooter. You play as either a male or female soldier that control identically. You move with the d-pad or analog stick and fire with square. You shoot in the direction you are facing. That's it for the controls. Each level is a space station or installation. You must find ten humans and rescue them while fighting off hordes of aliens. Once you have rescued ten people, you can proceed to the exit and fight the level's boss. All the while a timer is ticking down, and if it gets to zero, the whole place explodes.

       You can find powerups in wall panels that replace the pea-shooter you start with. You can get a fireball launcher, a laser, and a few other weapons. You can also find robots that will follow along behind you and fire backward. Each level features a different layout. Some are mostly open but have a few seperate rooms. Others feature pits you can fall into. Later levels have a more complex layout for you to traverse. There are maps on some walls, and touching them will temporarily bring up a map of the level, including human locations. This isn't needed for the first few levels, but helps out in the last couple.

       Each level features a different alien species. The first level has these amazing pink bloated worm things that are stuningly animated (I think these are in the PSP game too, they seem really familiar). They mostly move in pre-set patterns, although there is a yellow variety that will hunt you down and even shoot a projectile at you. Then in the second level there are bipedal aliens that seem a bit smarter, shoot projectiles, and continuously spawn out of enemy generators. Things get weirder from there, with different appearances, behaviors, and strengths.

       Finally, each level features a boss. These are usually large, freakish beasts that aggressively attack you. The designers of this game obviously went to the Contra School of Freaky Creature Design, as there is more than one enemy that has a fetus head grafted onto it. Quite disturbing. Some bosses send minions after you. Others fire lots of projectiles. Others jump at you themselves, and there are a few other weird strategies they employ. One of this game's strengths is its diveresity in its levels, enemies, and bosses.

       Now after playing the game a bit, you run into some flaws. Mainly that you can only fire in the direction you are facing or moving, and you can only change your facing by taking a step in the direction you want to face. This leads to a lot of problems. If a game were designed around this as a feature, that might work, but in this instance it feels like a design flaw. There are a lot of frustrating times when you die because you couldn't aim where you wanted to while moving where you wanted to. This game looks like a twin stick shooter, but it isn't. That in itself isn't a flaw, but the issue of moving and shooting needs to be resolved. I think the solution would be to make it so you have a way to hold still and pivot in place, and possibly a way to lock yourself to one facing while still being able to move. Having it be a straight up twin stick shooter would change the feel too much, but implementing one or two of the above changes and then cranking the difficulty up a bit would probably make it more fun and less frustrating. Just to be clear, it's super-difficult as it is, but if you kept the difficulty the same and made these changes, that might make the game too easy. Know what I mean?

        As you might expect for an arcade shooter, Alien Syndrome is real hard. At the beginning of this version, you can change some of the settings (which, if I'm not mistaken, represents settings the owner of an arcade cabinent can change on the circuit board or a panel or something). Believe me when I say you need to set it to the easiest modes, and it's still going to be an extreme challenge. Is it possible to beat without using this version's ability to save at any time? Well, yes, I think so. But that statement is complicated by the fact that you can't continue by putting in another virtual quarter; the game goes straight to game over when you die. You start with 4 lives, and there is no way to earn another. That means you need to beat the entire game with only 3 mistakes allowed. Deaths come frequently and lurk around every corner in this game. It gets real hard at the end too. This feat is possible with a lot of practice. I didn't do it though. After playing for about 2 weeks or so without cheating, I got to the boss of level 4 out of 6. I started save-scumming and beat the game. It was still challenging and fun to figure out the levels and bosses, and I'm glad I did it, although I do feel a little dirty. I feel ok though since I played it a lot without cheating first, and really felt that hardcore arcade experience of being able to get further and further. It's just that at the point of frustration and lack of progress, I was able to leisurely play the rest of the game and enjoy it rather than just quitting. Several more weeks would be required for me to beat it legitamately, but I was ready to move on.

       Alien Syndrome is a fun game. It has amazing enemy design (if you're into the really weird Contra-style stuff), great animation, and a lot of variety in it's levels and encounters. The music, which is slow and brooding in the level, and then more frantic when you fight the boss) is pretty good too, as are the digitized screams and voice overs. It's extremely hard, but you should know that going in since it's an arcade game. You can see most of the game by playing it legitamately, but if you get stuck, it's still fun to play with cheat-saving as you still need to figure out how to navigate each level and how to attack each boss; you can't just force your way through. Its basic gameplay is a little flawed due to the above mentioned aiming and moving thing, but overall it holds up incredibly well for a game from '87 (I was 2 when this came out, and it's still totally playable!). It's a mediocre game, tier 1.