Developed and published by Konami in 1990
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It's fair to say that, when the original Alien film hit the silver screen, it was a revolution for the sci-fi genre. A nail-biting game of cat-and-mouse against a terrifying alien horror set in the darkness of space, it would kickstart one of the most memorable film franchises to ever come out of Hollywood.
The 1986 sequel, Aliens, was equally brilliant as it placed less emphasis on horror and more on action. The film was certainly no less tense for the change in direction and remains my personal favourite in all of the Alien films to date. A smash hit, the film spawned a whole host of associated merchandise including several video games and even a line of action figures for kids (bearing in mind this was 18-rated film which children would not have been able to watch!).
Having secured a licence to develop a game based on the franchise, Konami released Aliens into the arcades in 1990. The game is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, putting the player in the combat boots of Ellen Ripley (and Corporal Hicks if playing with a friend) as she dares to take the fight to the xenomorph horde currently infesting the colonist base of Hadley's Hope.
The game features an extensive arsenal of weapons with which Ripley can obliterate the xenomorph foe. These new items can be acquired by collecting weapon tokens, which can be found out in the open, or inside weapon canisters. The player gets to choose the exact weapon they would like by waiting for the token to display the respective gun before collecting it, which is a nice touch.
Whilst the range of weapons is admirable, for some unfathomable reason, Konami chose not to include the most iconic of all the weapons in the Aliens universe, the M41A pulse rifle! Instead, Ripley starts the game with M56 smart gun - sure, it's synonymous with the Aliens universe, but it will always play second fiddle to the pulse rifle.
Having tooled themselves up appropriately, the game is an uncomplicated affair of progressing to the right, annihilating anything that moves. From aliens to strange, zombie-like humanoids, everything must be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Entering ducts and crawl-spaces results in Ripley making use of the iconic motion tracker to keep tabs on encroaching enemies. This is particularly useful for anticipating enemies popping out of air vents and shooting them before they have chance to turn you into lunch.
Certain levels are interspersed with on-rails shooting sections where Ripley rides atop the marine APC as it travels to it's next destination. The objective here is to shoot approaching aliens before they get too close, whilst also dodging out of the way of debris and storage containers left lying in the road. These sections are some of the toughest in the game, requiring quick reflexes if the player is to avoid taking too much damage.
As expected for a Konami game, the graphics are excellent. All of the character sprites are big, bold and animated with a high level of detail, most of which explode into a satisfyingly goopy pile of acidic remains when shot.
On the subject of art direction, understandably, Konami needed to introduce additional enemy designs to keep the gameplay fresh and exciting. Unfortunately, I feel that a lot of these stray too far from the original design - the inclusion of extra appendages, wings and other limbs make the aliens more reminiscent of John Carpenter than H.R. Geiger.
Sound-wise, the game is a mixed bag. The game's music is passable, but there's nothing particularly memorable about it (especially when compared to the Konami's TMNT arcade game), but there are some good digitised effects, notably the iconic screech when a xenomorph meets it's demise.
For fans of straight and simple arcade shooting experiences, Aliens is a cracking game. The difficulty isn't particular punishing (compared to others in the genre), and blowing up aliens with all the different weapons is a lot of fun. Although I think Konami really missed a trick by not including the pulse rifle, there's no doubt that Aliens provides plenty of uncomplicated, blasting action for any gamer.
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