I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Alien Soldier since I started playing; or specifically, since the SECOND TIME I started playing.

The first time— in comparison to the sleek and simple Gunstar Heroes—I found it to feel cumbersome—the weapon-switching especially—and overly complicated. But, the beautiful graphics and positively manic music drew me back. And what I discovered subsequently, in many, many hours of play, was one of my favorite games of all time.

Note: I haven’t completed a true run of this. I used save states at the beginnings of levels and sometimes at the beginnings of bosses (never DURING a boss). Now, having beaten every boss, and feeling confident that I know each one’s secrets, the thought of a perfect run (without continues) is incredibly enticing. All I want to do is boot this thing up again and again and mow through these bosses that once perplexed and countless-times murdered me and see those credits swirl around that blue planet and know that I am a video-game god.

The mechanics here are unimpeachable. The weapon switching now feels like second nature—taking that split-second to switch once one weapon runs out feels incredibly dangerous and gratifying at the same time. The feel of each weapon is unique and weighty. The beam mechanic, by which you deflect enemy shots and at times gain health consequently, gives the player a well-balanced and much-needed edge. The zero jump, where you become invincible for a moment and slash across to the other side of the screen, is not optional. I bet I spent like a quarter of each boss’ life in mid-zero jump. This is all not to mention: like in Gunstar heroes, you can alter the way in which you shoot—strafe or spray—but unlike in Gunstar heroes, you can switch the modes IN GAME. (So many run and gun games—Cuphead in particular—rightly take much inspiration from Alien Soldier’s mechanics).

I know I already mentioned the visuals and the music, but I will mention them again: the VISUALS, and the MUSIC. Damn. If there is a Mega Drive game with better production value, I haven’t seen it.

This is a 25-course meal at a fancy restaurant: every boss is a course, a unique, delicious flavor, that pairs well with and flows into the next. You can consume each course in numerous ways—countless ways! You can pair different weapons with different bosses for different effects. There is rarely one, definitive answer.

The narrative preamble for the game—the English translation at least— is one of the most hilariously convoluted things I’ve ever read. It’s part of the charm, though.

I could write 3,000 words about this game, but I’ll leave it here. If you like run-and-gun-style shooters, just play it—it’s a masterpiece.

(Note: If you plan on playing this game, pick up the Japanese version. It runs notably better than the PAL version Sega put up on Steam. You can switch regions from the Genesis collection once you put the JP Rom in the game's files.)

From the outside of it, Alien Soldier seems such a tacky and generic name for another Run N' Gun in the Genesis library, a game library that's just swarming with arcade-like shooters. When I booted the game, I was immediately greeted to an onslaught of text explaining this nonsensical plot to me for about 5 minutes. Then once I made it to the title screen and had a look into the options settings, I was given the choice to play the game on both "SUPEREASY" and "SUPERHARD". This has only foreshadowed what I was getting myself into.

Once I hit start, I had the option to select 6 different weapons which the game nicely showed me what they did before I put them in my four weapon slots then the game asked me how I'd like to display my characters info, how much ammo he had, and the enemies health, for which the game had 23 different options for, all can be toggled as meters, exact numbers, or to keep them hidden entirely. Action games to this day don't even have that much customization for displaying vital information. Then the game gave me a little warm-up room to show me the controls. You have a shoot, a switch that allows you to switch firing from in-place to freely move shooting, a parry, a weapon wheel, a full screen dash, and a jump. All of these only mapped to three Sega Genesis buttons.

I then actually got to play the game and the first run of it was rather loud. And I don't mean the music, I mean it was loud in every human sense possible. The game shoots you in immediately on the word go and you shoot everything at a million miles per hour at big alien creatures with explosions everywhere with a busy pixel-art background. You take some damage here and there, you learn your jump can stick to the ceiling, and not even a minute goes by and you encounter a big purple centipede boss before you have a full grasp on the controls, which at this point didn't really click with me yet. I then died to this simple centipede over and over which made me step back from the game to really practice the controls.

Then I beat the centipede and from there, the game shows its true colors.

This is not your simple run n' gun affair like Contra or Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier is a boss rush disguised as a Run N' Gun game. From even the first level, the game's moment-to-moment levels are short and are just there to serve as a way to reward the player with some health pick-ups or upgrades to their weapons or to introduce the player to new mechanics before the next boss fight. There's not a lot of fluff here, the game knows what it is and doesn't waste the player's time getting to what it shines in.

The game's controls and mechanics don't make a lot of sense at first, but sticking with it, any problem I could have had a solution to it. Weapon upgrades cycle between what weapon you'll get, but if you shoot at the tank with a weapon, it will automatically switch to the weapon you want. Health pick-ups are actually not limited to the levels, most of the bosses will often have projectile-based attacks that, if you parry them, will drop health. Not also it makes a lot of the fights in this game surprisingly fair, it's also an ingenious way of teaching the player to master its parry mechanic, which is vital to beating the final boss.

The weapon wheel feels confusing to look at, but there's also a linear menu on the top right that the player can look at to get a better sense of which way they should press to get the weapon they need. And you will be switching between different weapons a lot, as bosses will deflect certain weapons while being weak to others, making every weapon viable while not being the definitive weapon to use. They also have ammo, which drains faster if the player toggles the gold armor to move freely while shooting, so there will be times the player will have to be prepared to switch weapons.

The game's bosses are easily the highlight of the experience. All are animated very nicely and give audio cues to telegraph their attack patterns so the player can respond with a dash, a jump, or a parry to plan out their moment to attack the boss. They all hit like a truck, even on "SUPEREASY" but they never feel unfair. They all had strategies to them the player needs to plan out and master. They all are uniquely different in strategy and using the game's mechanics to the fullest, to the point where I can say this game has one of the best boss-lineups I've seen since I've played Devil May Cry 3.

This is all backed by stellar Genesis pixel-art and effects and a pretty good soundtrack. I normally don't like the Genesis sound chip because it either sounds like a lot of static in my ear or just plain fart noises layered over each other, but Alien Soldier uses the sound chip to its advantage, creating some kick-ass tunes on par with Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

There's a lot to cover here that I may have missed, but the bottom line is that Alien Soldier feels as if a Heavy Metal track had become sentient. It will constantly barrage you with loud vocals, guitars, and percussions that you may not get on your first listen. But something allured me back to it, and now I rock my head back and forth to what it sings to me.

I was surprised to see by the end of the game learning that the game was only developed by one man for the majority of its development, and even after getting a crew to try and finish it, the game was released only halfway finished. Maybe if the developers had more time, they could've had more time to maybe develop more stages or write up a less bizarre story. But as it stands, Alien Soldier feels more complete than 90% of the Genesis library. I will definitely be returning to this game more often.

Why's everyone recommending to play on Super Easy on a first playthrough??? Alien Soldier is excess incarnate! It's the purest form of MDMA in the shape of 2D action! What, all of a sudden you want it to be tame? It's against the very soul of the game! It demands for you to jump into the meat grinder inside its cartridge and come out the other side all mushy, just to hop back into it once again.
Who the hell looks at the two settings "SUPEREASY" or "SUPERHARD" and doesn't instantly get the message!?

Alien Soldier is the very definition of Sink Or Swim. It doesn't care who you are or where you came from, you're not going ANYWHERE until you blast this massive, writhing, cybernetic worm thing all the way to Hell. If Shadow of the Colossus can be called a “Boss Rush,” then Alien Soldier is a “Boss Stampede.” A “Boss Bullet Train.” A “Hyper Boss Fighter II Turbo: Fight for the Future.“ Why nobody’s been hollering loudly about Alien Soldier’s greatness for the last two decades is seriously beyond me, though it’s probably because they’re all too busy evangelizing Gunstar Heroes (or — checks notes — Minecraft). Then again, as of my writing this, Alien Soldier already has a higher average rating than Gunstar Heroes on Backloggd.com, though, let’s pretend I’m not preaching to the choir for just a moment.

Somewhere between Treasure’s previous run-and-gun ventures and Sin and Punishment, Alien Soldier achieves actual, No-Really relentlessness. Barreling through setpiece after setpiece, packed with wild battles so frantic that your real-world cool-headedness becomes an active game mechanic, its manufactured setting takes on an air of genuine ferocity. It’s so videogame-y that, in the heat of the moment, its game-y-ness folds back on itself and becomes believability. The drama that emerges from its extreme white-knuckle “VISUALSHOCK!!” action grinds the nonsense story on the title screen down to powder. Rather than getting kicked back to a level select, you progress until you win or die. And “winning” puts every twitch action reflex bone in your body to the test.

Remember how, right at the start, Gunstar Heroes made you choose whether or not you’d be able to move while shooting for the whole game? Alien Soldier laughs directly into the camera, says “THAT was dumb,” reels back, and hurls the car keys your way at mach five. It’s your responsibility to work out When to do What. Select any four of six possible weapons to cycle between. Press the jump button in mid-air to hover in place. You can walk on the ceiling. Parry bullets to turn them into health blobs. Reach max health, and your invulnerable dash becomes a Fiery Death Charge. Because this is a certifiably Great Videogame, this damages you slightly. Here, the rhythm of Alien Soldier’s dance comes into focus. Swap modes, cycle weapons, fire, dodge, cycle again, hover, parry bullets, dash, and you might just live to fight the next unholy abomination. You can breathe when it’s over.

It’s a dollar on Steam.

one of the best games I have literally ever played, consistently ahead of its time to the point where the rest of us probably haven't caught up

also nowhere near as hard as its reputation had me expecting! it is near-impenetrable at first but supereasy mode is plenty forgiving and it has a surprisingly well-considered difficulty curve, it ramps up pretty gradually with the exception of a few "wall" bosses to serve as proper skill gates, like sniper honeyviper, seven force, etc

I need to also point out that on supereasy there's a fucking manual slow-motion feature!!! the madmen including an accessibility feature that's STILL rare all these years later back on the mega drive... insane

I do almost yearn for a version of this game made for the genesis 6-button pad but the insane, unwieldy control scheme is better than it has any right to be and mostly serves as a reminder of how bold treasure were willing to be, and besides, only having to move your fingers between three buttons probably does help with how manic things can get

but yeah, game is a technical masterpiece and damn near perfect, anyone want to go 68000 THE HEART ON FIRE with me

this is a title that feels downright oppressive at first. your protagonist takes up an absolutely absurd amount of screen real estate; you have a wealth of complex techniques to master mapped to only three different buttons; there's six different weapons, not all of which are applicable in every scenario, and there are upwards of twenty different ways of representing your status and resources; the only available difficulties are SUPEREASY and SUPERHARD. this is unruly, frantic, and demanding, and you'll likely spend a fair amount of time dying repeatedly just to make heads or tails of the game because it shoves you right into the crossfire, before you might even be aware that the entire game is tantamount to a boss rush.

stick with it. conquer the game on SUPERHARD, no matter how arduous. it's the rare game that makes the most of every single mechanic on offer, where each design implementation is representative of an uncanny degree of fine-tuning and polish. i can point to any one detail in this game, no matter how consequential or intangible, and give you a sensible, informative, and well-articulated answer for why it was designed this way. doubtless the masters at treasure can, too. it's tooth-and-nail adrenaline-inducing frenzy condensed into an hour's run time

Abandonado en el nivel 20, no me apetece seguir.

Todo está enredado de más. Gráficamente es como jugar a través de un cristal translúcido, el doble salto es en realidad triple con una parada a mitad (se intuye que es el muñeco flotando pero se siente como colgarlo de un perchero) y hasta cambiar de arma requiere un proceso de varios pasos. Barreras y barreras en un juego complejo antes que profundo. Un juego que exige atención, dedicación y aprendizaje sin dar satisfacción a cambio. Jugarlo en paralelo a Kung-Fu Master es revelador.

Solo game development is a high-risk high-reward prospect. The developer’s dream game might not appeal to anyone else, or it may be crippled by the need for one person to exceed in all the arts of game making. However, if the game does manage to come together, you can get totally unique experiences that just exude personality. For Alien Soldier, it was the vision of a Treasure employee named Hideyuki Suganami who wanted to follow up Gunstar Heroes with the ultimate 2D shooter. Even though the Genesis’ hayday was over by the start of development in 1994, he wanted to make the definitive action game for it before 3D hardware had totally overtaken the market. That’s a tall task for one guy, but I would be confident in stating he succeeded with his design (but more staff came on to finish the project near the end, for the record). Alien Soldier really might be the best 2D shooter of all time, and you can feel Suganami’s understanding of the genre through all the mechanical polishes most people wouldn’t even think about. For example, most sidescrolling shooters either lock you in place as you shoot or force you to shoot in the direction you’re moving, but in Alien Soldier you can freely swap between the two to handle different enemies. You swap weapons with a weapon wheel, but since some players might push right to rotate the wheel clockwise, and others would push right to select the option on the right, there’s also a linear display to prevent confusion. In a nice touch for expert players, the health/ammo/damage bars can be set to either be graphics, numbers, or hidden entirely. These polishes still aren’t standard in 2D shooters, and most don’t have the smart pacing that this game does either. Alien Soldier has short levels that mostly serve as a way to recharge your health and ammo between the incredible boss fights, and there’s no wasted time or filler levels. It’s the ultimate example of an “all killer, no filler” game, it’s wonderfully imaginative and challenging from front to back. My only suggestion for when you play (and a hint at the game’s over-the-top personality) is to flip the difficulty from SUPERHARD to SUPEREASY, at least for your first playthrough. Hard mode is meant to play like an arcade game with its limited continues, but easy mode lets you just select a new set of weapons when you die, in case your current set is unsuited to the current challenge. It really is hard to talk about this game without getting into another one of those little polishes. I could gush about all the little things this game gets right all day, and still wouldn’t be able to convey how cool and fun this game is. Please play it, it’s $1 on Steam and easy to emulate.

Such a weird game, yet its fast paced gameplay is incredibly stellar.

Fuck Seven Force though, I hate that boss fight with almost all of my being. Gonna just skip to Level 21 so I can literally do anything else.

Update: I have decided to stop playing the game. It is by all intents and purposes a good game, hell I'd argue it's a great game, but fuck me man. Hitting Level 20, the boss level with Seven Force... Jesus Fuck. I have spent the past several days just trying to figure this boss out. Eventually I had grown so tired of the boss fight, having played it over and over and achieving the same result, cue some unfunny Far Cry 3 joke, I resorted to using a password to just skip to the next level. After that I played a bit further and realized that I was exhausted from playing this game constantly, and that I needed to stop.

Alien Soldier, at least up until Level 20 for me personally, is a fantastic and fast paced experience. But Seven Force... seriously, never have I fought a boss that made me feel like I was taking years (that being hyperbole) to get through it, and I play RPGs on the regular.

Regardless, you should give this game a try, as it's somehow one of the most obscure Genesis games I've ever heard of (though I could be wrong). There is a lot about this game that is really good, just keep in mind that if you're not like, really into 2D Action Games, this may not be the game for you.

A pretty fun boss gauntlet game, known for it's clunky controls that require a bit of time/patience to get used to, when you do, it feels good. Timing is essential, as managing your ammo/force levels is a big part of the game, you have to keep an eye on them to change weapons quickly, maximize your damage and not get caught in a bad situation. The clock is always running and every second counts.
For the most part, I thought the bosses were pretty fun, there's a lot of cool level designs and they're are always working against you. I found some bosses mildly annoying and towards the end, kind of disappointing. Which upon reading on it, it reflects how much ambition this game had and it's craving for more that never made it into the final product.

Nonetheless, going into it blind and knowing nothing about it, i had a great time and i'd recommend it to anyone that is looking for a challenge as this game is quite unforgiving and ruthless at times, definitely one of the toughest on the Mega Drive.

Alien Soldier is a really cool game, and feels very ahead of its time in a lot of ways. The game's kind of difficult to get into because it just dumps you straight into things without much explanation, but once you actually start learning the systems of the game all of your abilities and weapons are really satisfying to use. Boss rush games don't really seem like something anyone was doing back when this was made, and it mostly does a really good job at it aside from some weird difficulty spikes. Stage 20 is brutally difficult and the few after that are kind of anticlimactic because none of them were anywhere close to as difficult, I even first tried the final boss (which was not very good imo). That aside though, really cool game overall, I could see coming back to this and trying to complete a Superhard run sometime.