Ah, emulation vs original hardware. There are very good arguments for both sides of this divisive coins. Personally, I do not have the funds, or patience, to seek out games I wish to play on original hardware due to the prices have been inflated by collectors, the scarcity of the original hardware and pure laziness. So, I say, thank God for emulation. Without emulation there are many, many games that I would never have heard of and would never have had the opportunity to play. Alien Soldier is one such game.

Alien Soldier is a single-player side-scrolling run and gun video game developed by Treasure Co., LTD. and published by Sega. It was released for the Mega Drive in 1995 and would be re-released on PlayStation 2’s as part of the Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box (2006), Volume 25 of the Sega Ages 2500 series. It would go on to be re-released on the Wii Virtual Console (2007), Steam (2011), Nintendo Switch Online (2022) and the Sega Genesis Mini 2 (2022). For this review, I played the version found on Sega Mega Drive Classics (2010) for the PlayStation 4.

Plot

The plot to this game is a weird one. Basically, it’s 2015 and the planet Sierra is under attack by a terrorist group known as Scarlet. Led by the evil Xi-Tiger, they plan to destroy the human race. Scarlet’s former leader, Epilson-Eagle has sworn to defeat the terrorist group putting and end to Xi-Tiger’s evil scheming once and for all. (Bearing in mind, Epsilon-Eagle is not trying to save humanity but simply seeking revenge on Xi-Tiger).

Gameplay

Epsilon-Eagle must battle his way through 25 stages, defeating 26 bosses along the way. Before embarking on your mission, you must arm yourself with four out of a potential six weapons, each with their own advantages and disadvantages:

Buster Force – Firing bright yellow blasts at your enemy, this weapon has a weak attack but uses less ammo and has a good range.

Flame Force – A deadly flame that uses less ammo but is limited in range.

Sword Force – A deadly laser beam with a good range but that guzzles your ammo.

Ranger Force – Three way shot that is a bit of an all-rounder. Not as strong as the Sword or Lancer Forces but uses less ammo than them.

Homing Force – Flame thrower that seeks out the enemies’ weak spots. Great for bosses but not as strong as the Sword or Lancer Forces. It does use less ammo though.

Lancer Force – Another deadly laser beam with a good range but that guzzles your ammo.

To change weapons in game, please ‘A’ and cycle through the wheel until you find your desired weapon. press ‘A’ again to close the wheel.

How Does It Handle?

The controls are nice and responsive but take a little getting used to. You need to be super quick when changing weapons as the game will continue to play. Since there are only four weapons, I think it would have been better to simply press ‘A’ to cycle to the next weapon on the list. This would enable you to continue to evade your enemies rather than be a sitting duck.

Although you can block by double tapping the fire button but I don’t think this works very well. The six-button controller was around by this time so why not utilise it?

I like the idea tht there is a target on the bosses body so that you know where to shoot. Hardened gamers may disagree but this is a personal preference.

I don’t think I used the hover function until stage 11, but I certainly used the Zero Teleport. In fact, spoiler alert, using the Zero Teleport was the easiest way to defeat most bosses which made them a little monotonous after a while. Having said that, I’m yet to get past the boss on Stage 11 and you can’t use the Zero Teleport much on it.

Graphics

I think the game looks great. Epsilon-Eagle is well illustrated and animated and there is plenty of variation between the enemies and each boss is noticeably different. Lots of big explosions, screen shakes when the bosses have been defeated. I think the levels look great too with a nice variation of backgrounds which are very detailed and modestly coloured so as not to draw the eye away too much from the action.

Music and SFX

The music is very high-octane stuff which fits a game like this well. The issue is that I was so engrossed in what I was doing, I never noticed the music. I had to play through again and really pay attention to it. SFX-wise, again lots of explosions and laser noises but they get lost amid the chaos of the game. Although I do like the siren going off and the vocalised “Emergency” when you are coming to a boss battle.

Replay Value:

Having more than one difficulty setting always adds a little to the replay value but I think the game is very samey and did not make me want to continue playing.

Did I Complete The Game?

No. At present, I got to stage 10 or 11 before I felt I had seen all the game has to offer. I will continue to play at a later date though.

What The Critics Said:

Consoles +: “A good shoot ’em up for the MD. Overall 88%“.[1]

Computer and Video Games: “This is a well worn genre and there aren’t many roads forward. Alien Soldier doesn’t exactly build a new orbital motorway, but it does lead you down quite an interesting road. Basing play on boss fighting isn’t a new idea, but Alien Soldier does quite a tidy job of delivering the goods. Alien Soldier will take any budding sadist a lot of determination to complete, my only worry is that your blood lust may dry and your interest shrivel into repetitive stress syndrome before you kill the final infernal boss. Overall 80%“.[2]

Mean Machines Sega: “A modern classic that turns the concept of platform blasting inside-out, but that suffers from being a bit samey. Overall 85%“.[3]

Verdict:

“Alien Soldier looks great and is exciting to play…at first. As the levels progress, the game becomes a bit monotonous.”

Rating:

What are your memories of Alien Soldier? I would love to hear your thoughts, and don’t for get to follow and subscribe so that you don’t miss my latest reviews! You can also find me on Instagram: @nicklovestogame.

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[1] ‘Mega Driver Review – Alien Soldier’. Consoles +. (April 1995). No. 42. :131.

[2] ‘CVG Review/Showcase – Alien Soldier’. Computer and Video Games. (June 1995). Issue 163:52-57. 

[3] ‘Megadrive Review – Alien Soldier’ – Mean Machine Sega. (July 1995). Issue 33:80-81.