In some gaming community i'm in, there's agenda to play any Alien Versus Predator game for this October. You probably think about FPS game on PC with the same name. But, no. I play the less known IGS' Alien Versus Predator (1993) on SNES instead. [Note: i may regret this weird decision]
The "Alien" part looks good enough to me but the "Predator" part is ugly because of that piss yellow color. There's option menu but it's hidden. If you press up or down the "start game" menu becomes "config mode". It's weird considering, there's lot of space below the title.
I will set the lives to max as usual: 6. The maximum continues is 3 which is the default setting and i think it's very lacking but it's still better than no continue at all. The controller setting only register 3 face buttons while shoulder buttons function is hidden yet useful but i will tell that later. The "special" button should be "attack" button there. The configuration is misleading.
Year: 2493
Planet: Vega 4
City: New Shanghai
Some human discover their demise in form of Xenomorphs in construction site. For once just once, the alien accident isn't related to the infamous Weyland Yutani Co. Or maybe they incidentally dig out Weyland Yutani's secret stash of alien eggs. Human don't stand a chance against these aliens especially their sudden friendly hug as you can see on left part of the picture.
Therefore they send distress call to earth base but they don't put anti scrambler on their signal so an UFO get the call instead. I wonder who receives it.
Why, of course! It's the predator. Upon receiving the distress call, he learn that human is worthless prey compare to this "Aliens" (which i agree). Therefore he sets to hunt them down. Time to hunt!
Here's the game. It's side-scrolling brawler game. You may begin to carve for Capcom's Alien versus Predator upon seeing this fact but bear with me for awhile, please! There's some items that i can pick up here. From left to right, they're: maximum health boost, temporary invisibility, and the famous blade disc of course.
You know what to expect from
side-scrolling brawler game. Repeated attack button will produce combo up to 4
hits. Pressing attack button near item to pick it up. Pressing attack and jump
button at the same time to activate spinning attack that knock enemies around
you but it doesn't cost bit of health like in other game with same genre.
Pressing attack button while jumping, will execute jumping kick. Walk up to
enemy, will initiate grab and you can follow it up with grabbed attack up to 3
times. You can also knock them with uppercut to direction you want by pressing
related d-pad + attack button. Every killed hunted alien will appear
from its corpse. If it dies off-screen, the game kindly punt them to screen's
corner. P. Power on top HUD indicates predator's health while A. Power
indicates health of alien that either get hit from or hit you.
Here's the secret of shoulder buttons. Pressing one of them will make the predator slides within fairly long distance to either left or right depends on which shoulder button you press. The sliding kick deals more or less same damage with jumping kick and both moves are useful against this large xenomorphs. Their type will like to run you over and the counter against that ramming attitude is you stretch out your foot either in air or along the floor.
After more street sweeping action (and no end of level boss somehow), Aliens are no more on the street city but there are more on underground which means...
...sewer level! Scout_jeers10.wav
Anyway, i don't think i've seen in movie that The Predator not use his spear in melee method and instead throws it like this and. I can't complain about this unusual spear method as it deals big damage to enemies and pierces through them also. Arthur from Ghost 'n Goblin, must be happy with this view.
This time there's boss fight. The boss looks bigger than any alien i encounter so far. But he's shy as he like to hide underwater everytime he try to claw me once in a while. I like that single lamp which put some intense atmosphere for this screenshot although there's comedy atmosphere happens in this fight. He jumps out of water, i slide tackle him, he jumps into water, rinse and repeat. Yakety sax music will be perfect for this fight.
Next stage is in canyon with waterfall on background which reminds me that stage in Battle Circuit which is another Capcom's beat 'em up game that i love. I can't knock the enemies to agonizing fall to their demise because there's invisible safety wall on the cliff. So my strategy is keep sliding which makes enemies cornered until dead. There's bit quirk in this stage: you fall to cliff everytime the fight is over, to proceed.
At the bottom of the cliff, this huge guy awaits me. I try the usual slide strategy but it mostly didn't work. He jumps around and claw my face even though i'm still sliding. So i need better strategy then i discover the use of laser button. I will use my famous shoulder cannon by using the button but not immediately. I have to hold down the button first to charge that bar on left top corner. Once the bar filled within yellow zone, the cannon shoot single weak projectile. If the bar filled within blue zone, the cannon shoot stronger projectile that can pierce through enemies and deal heavy damage like the spear throw. Charging to white zone does nothing, by the way. Thankfully, the bar is filled relatively quick unlike that power bar in Super Double Dragon. There's more to that. If you charge the laser bar even longer...
...the predator will unleash lightning on entire screen and deal very large damage to enemies like this. But besides the longer charging procedure, this "magic" also requires a portion of predator's health. I wish there's that blue leprechauns from Golden Axe around here so i can sacrifice magic potions instead of my health..
I like the lack of care from our "hero" here and i say it's fit to Predator's attitude. He's like Kratos in God of War: Ghost of Sparta, where he witness the fall of Atlantis but he doesn't feel anything about it and walks away.
The invisibility power up is more useful than in classic Doom. The enemies won't hit me until i hit them and then they kind of guessing where i am by flailing their claw wildly. It must be not easy to manipulate enemy's A.I as reasonable like that so i give IGS some credit.
I don't know whether captured humans on background can be rescued or not. But thing for sure is some of them will release chest burster and they're beyond saving. Due to their size, chest burster and face hugger can't be punched but a nice slippery sliding will take care of them at ease.
The boss this time is: dozens of chest bursters that come from above. The strategy is simple: keep sliding them until the boss' power bar depleted!
Is it just me or those Xenomorphs could be rap gang instead of menacing deadly alien? Anyway, i assume next is final level on spaceport, maybe?
That rocket reminds me of Contra Hardcops, somehow. Like in cliff
level, i fight aliens with repeated sliding kick and it works well. "Don't
fix what ain't broke!" as they said. There's color tone change as the fight goes on. So IGS get another credit from me.
Ok, this is horrible boss fight! I mean flying Xenomorph is cool but fighting against him is awful. He likes to fly so naturally you jump kick him, right? But most of the time he's totally invincible! The most consistent opportunity to hit him, is: a brief period after he swoop down on you. You can try to dodge his attack by moving up or down but the playfield is pretty narrow thus the dodge chance is minimized. The most baffling thing of all in this fight is: he's immune to the lightning "magic"! So i waste my health fruitlessly! I have to waste 1 continue against him. Demoman_negativevocalization04.wav
Turns out that wasn't final stage. All aliens are cleared within the planet so why? Because our "hero" is crazed hunter! So crazy that he wants to hunts all the aliens down to their home planet while riding spaceship that already filled with aliens! Does this screen mean that the predator hunt becomes night news? Well, that's both extraordinary yet reasonable.
This level is just plain long corridor so the shoulder cannon is your best bet. Sliding kick is still good but the cannon is better. I feel that the enemies drop their skull more than ever. It's good to amass score but i prefer restorative item such as cyan canteen or meat loaf. Besides, i don't get extra life if my score reaches certain number.
The inside of the spaceship also
long corridor so i abuse the shoulder cannon again. No point on doing otherwise
because they can knock me out with mere touch (when they're charging) and their
claw reaches almost a quarter of screen. You may says that i'm dishonorable hunter but i
follow the principle of "Work Hunt smarter not harder!"
I have theory about relation between Human, Aliens, and Predators, resembles Terran, Zerg, and Protoss from Starcraft. This boss may back up my theory as he's the structure of Hydralisk. Too bad for him that he can't spit spike like Hydralisk, because i keep harassing him with shoulder cannon and he can't do nothing about. But i don't feel bad about bullying this boss from afar, not after that flying schmuck.
Thus The Predator arrives at the homeplanet of Xenomorph. There's nothing much else to say about the planet's surface level because it's pretty much long corridor filled with 2 aliens at the time with occasion some face hugger or chest burster passing through. Instead i show you this intermission screen that as though that alien delivers the narration to player. It's quite amusing to me.
Surprise! Surprise! The final Alien nest is the same with waterfall cave level but with additional thin fog. What a lazy design! Instead, i want to show you about the blade disc weapon. You see that small white plate between me and my prey? That's the disc. It's another thrown weapon but not as powerful as spear.
The final boss is obviously the queen which somehow has the same physic with some of previous bosses. Now that i mention it, maybe they're also queen which explain their demise mark as the total elimination of the aliens as narration told. This final queen obviously has bigger health than her peers. She can run at you that sometime make her invincible . The most deadly move that she has: repeated claw that i can't escape if get hits once. During the battering, i can't activate the spinning attack or lightning "magic". So i have no choice but to accept her majesty's combo until the end. I defeat her with combination what i got: sliding kick, shoulder cannon, jumping kick, lightning pillars, and sometime punch combo.
...by the infamous Weyland Yutani Corporation, most likely. The portrait of Predator holding the queen's head look renaissance-ish. Forget Mona Lisa painting! I want his painting right there in my bedroom. I mean it!
I thought IGS' Alien Versus Predator (1993) is inferior than Capcom's Alien Versus Predator. But after i inspect the game further, i change my mind a bit. There's something good and unique on it. The invisibility power up, lightning storm, and maximum health booster, for example. The shoulder cannon feels overpowered compare to the one in arcade game even with combination of narrow playfield and everyone's big sprite that makes the field compact and intense. Thankfully, there's only 2 Aliens at most and with addition face hugger or chest burster scuttles along the screen so i rarely feel overwhelmed in entire portion of stages. Every enemies (except face hugger or chest burster) has health of entire bar but each has their own defense power. Some mook take damage bigger than larger ones, when they get hit etc. There's not much variation on aliens. Big alien like to trample you. Small aliens like to jump around with their hand in front of them. Some of them are special enough that they can spit at you. Disgusting bastards! The game will be decent if not because of that flying cheating git. The game consists of 9 levels but they're quite short. The sound of hitting enemies, is satisfying "Smack!" sound. The music is mediocre but fit to atmosphere of Predator hunts Xenomorphs. The story looks like believable except for the part where The Predator answer the distress call from human.
IGS' Alien Versus Predator (1993) on SNES is quite something. All of the portion of the game except for the flying xenomorph, is enjoyable. Especially the sliding kick. It's fast and reach long distance, better than in arcade game. If somehow you encounter Xenomorph egg, chest burster, or face hugger, give them your best sliding kick! That will take care of them easily and you will be better hero than Ellen Ripley!
Tell you what, i'll be crazy and will do other Alien Vs Predator for this month. If you expect me to review other game, well too bad. :p
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