Friday, April 18, 2014

Nerdicus Genesis Review #11 : Alien Storm


Title : Alien Storm

Publisher : Sega

Genre : Beat 'Em Up

Players : 1 / 2 Player

Release Date : 1991

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $8-$10

One of the most memorable experiences I had when I was a kid was playing two arcade games at a local pizza hut. Yes, that's not a mistake. Pizza Hut. There were two games there , not including the retarded crane machine that never worked. One was Goldenaxe, and the other was basically the same game in a different skin, Alien Storm.

Man, the amount of money I begged my parents for when we went to Pizza Hunt. I literally spent more money on the arcades than my parents did on the food. Not that the food was anything great. Pizza hut is disgusting.

Both games were pretty much the same thing. A beat 'em up styled arcade, except that instead of a fantasy setting like Goldenaxe, Alien Storm involved a race of homicidal aliens hell bent on destroying all of humanity on Earth.

Ah.....how can you possibly go wrong with a side-scrolling Beat 'Em Up where you just kick the crap out of Alien Scum?


Much like Goldenaxe, you can choose one of three characters, who basically just have slightly different attacks based on their weapon. Otherwise, they're all the same besides appearance. One guy looks like Elvis, another is some amazon-styled warrior woman (in a sci-fi uniform), and the last is a robot. I'll go with Elvis for this run, because what could be better than Elvis killing aliens?

The main part of the game is played through the classic side-scrolling beat 'em up style. You move from left to right, collecting power ups, and killing enemies including some massively sized bosses at the end of certain levels. You've got traditional basic attacks that vary based on your characters weapons, and a special attack.

The special attacks are awesome. I mean who wouldn't want to summon a US Airship to bomb the entire screen or drop a nuclear bomb on the aliens? HA!


The other part of the game is more like a 3rd person shooter. Aliens fly at the screen toward you, and you just need to keep blasting them before you take too much damage. I do like how the game was broken up between the side-scrolling and the shooter portion. Still, I enjoy the side-scrolling portion more.

The 3rd person portion brings back horrible memories of the Bayou Billy shooting parts. *Shudders* The horror.


Basically, you're playing Golden Axe with robots. That's about it. There's nothing that spectacular about the game, but it really isn't too bad. It's one of those games that was more fun on the Arcade when you played it, and a little bit of a shaft when you get it for the Genesis. It was the same deal for Golden Axe too. The genesis version just wasn't up to snuff with the Arcade. 

It leaves you wanting. Graphics are a little blurred but still pretty good. The soundtrack is atrocious though, and the sound effects are a bit bizarre. Still, it's one of those games that keeps pulling you back for some reason. Maybe it's the simplicity of it, or maybe it's the fact that you can play as Elvis killing aliens. Who knows?

Final Score (out of 5) :





Until next time. Keep on gaming!

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