Alien Storm
Alien Storm was an obscure arcade brawler back in the day. How it made it onto the Genesis is something of a miracle. But in a way I'm kinda glad it did. The game is built pretty well. You have three different characters (female, male, and cyborg) to choose from. There's only nominal differences between the cast. Mainly in the balancing of their strength & speed.
After picking a character you are thrown into battle against an onslaught of alien monsters. Most of the monsters are of your tentacle variety while some actually shape shift. Your weapon & special move drain your energy bar gradually. So you gotta keep grabbing batteries (which recharge your energy) if you wanna keep going. Run out of juice and you're reduced to bunting aliens with your gun. During certain parts of the game you switch over to a first-person shooting or a side-scrolling shooter mode. These stages add some variety to the monotonous tone of the game.
There are some problems with the game. Most notable are the tedious fight scenes. And the incredibly cheap monsters who like to gang up around you. In addition, there's far better games of this genre that exist today. But AS has a certain charm that keeps me coming back. Plus I enjoy side-scrolling brawlers. So that helps out too. Not everyone is gonna enjoy Alien Storm, but I had some fun with this early 90's nostalgic trip.
| Category | Rating | How & Why? |
| Graphics | 7 | Tentacle Monsters and City, Alien Backdrops / A Lot of Mute Colors & Dumb Looking Heroes / 3D-ish FPS Mode Looks OK / Has a Late 80's Arcade Look to it... |
| Music | 6 | Decent Soundeffects / Forgettable Music |
| Gameplay | 6 | Side-Scrolling Arcade Action / Energy Bar dictates Special Moves and Weapons Use / Cheap-Hit Enemies / First Person Shooter and Side Shooter Modes add some Variety |
| Innovation | 6 | Think "Aliens" meets "Streets of Rage" with Weapons... |
| Replay | 7 | Better Brawling Games Exist / But Has a Certain Charm |
Overall 6.4
Written by ShinjiZ for GameyPlace.com on April 25, 2001