(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.
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.