Alien Storm review - Sega Megadrive

Let's hope that brown is your favourite colour, because you're going to be seeing a lot of it - particularly in the trouser region. The most terrifying monsters from outer space have landed, and they're busy eating humans, vomiting smelly entrails into people's underwear and generally causing a bit of a hard time. Towns all over the USA have suddenly become infested by some of the most gruesome creatures ever and only a hero armed to the teeth with destruction-bringing artillery can give them a right royal kick up the backside and save the world!

There are three distinct sections to Alien Storm, but in all of them the aim is simple. Standing between you and the end of the level are a whole host of creepy ghoulies and your aim is to kick alien butt (although the use of high-power lasers is probably going to be a tad more effective).

There are eight levels of alien-busting antics, with the final showdown taking place in the aliens' UFO - in flight! Annihilate the mean alien boss and it's game over. If they blow you up, it's game over too, but the aliens will roam the Earth forever - unchecked!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Alien Storm is a fantastic blast that's virtually arcade perfect! The graphics are spot-on with a whole host of brilliant aliens and decent backdrops. The action is mega-fast, very smooth and highly addictive. You'll be at this until you've completed it...which, erm, isn't very long i'm afraid. Yes, it's sad but oh-so-true; completing Alien Storm is about as difficult as putting on a pair of trousers! Virtually everyone in the office completed the game within half an hour of its arrival - it's that simple. It's a real shame that the extra difficulty levels don't really add that much of a challenge to the game. For £35.00, you should get a lot more value for money, and in this respect Alien Storm just doesn't deliver. Fans of the coin-op will doubtlessly enjoy this (although they'll probably complete it even quicker than Storm novices), but otherwise I find it hard to recommend this game.

Alien Storm features stunning graphics that mimic their horrifically grisly arcade counterparts perfectly. Some of the sprite animation is really fantastic, and there are plenty of gruesome touches - one alien has green arms inside its mouth which reach out and grab you; another farts noxious gases, one irritating type spits goo from mouths in its chest, there's a mutoid kangaroo which sprouts a disgusting proboscis from its pouch, a giant slitherer which opens it mouth enormously wide and leaps across at you, and there's also a horrible...er...thing which grabs you, turns you upside down and drops you on your head! The music is also fantastic, with plenty of rockin' tunes and brill sound effects. "So the game is great, then" I hear you cry. Well, I'm afraid it's not - nowhere near. What Alien Storm completely lacks is something totally vital. It's called challenge. I finished it on my first go - without using any of the six credits I gave myself!

Retrospective comments

My local leisure centre had an Alien Storm cabinet for a few months and it got the lion's share of my loose change when the appeal of playing Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ran out. Playing very much like a futuristic Golden Axe (Gordon is the spitting image of Ax Battler), Alien Storm really got my hooked and showed just how talented Sega were at creating game concepts. The Megadrive conversion isn't quite arcade perfect - graphically the original arcade machine is more impressive - but in terms of gameplay everything is present and correct. As the MM team point out, the game is far too easy, but it's still a great laugh in two-player mode, just like Golden Axe was before it. If you fancy a bit of alien bashing, make sure you get the Japanese version - not just because the boxart is fantastically good (and the PAL artwork is predictably awful), but because it's supposed to be slightly harder.

Have your say about Alien Storm

mega man - 07 Feb 2008, 02:02 GMT

hooked playing this again after so many years. I used to have the tape loading amstrad version. started playing this with a tv mega drive plug n play. so much fun blasting those aliens. good variation between 1st 2nd perspective. they should remake it..

Tris Wicks - 24 Nov 2008, 22:51 GMT

The most demanding game of it's genre for snappy reflexes - good grief you've gotta fight fast. Top stuff.

Godpikachu - 09 Feb 2009, 17:44 GMT

I never really got on with this game, as i always saw it as a dodgy rip off of golden axe.
But with hindsight it was a pretty decent game for its time, it had everything that an MD game should have, colourful graphics, challenging gameplay, good enemies and a nice selection of player characters.

The only problem i have with it is that, and i dunno wether this is a glitch or something, but sometimes the controls are unresponsive, and handle like your guy is walking through knee deep tar, plus, and this is a common fault with beat em ups, if you get surrounded, youre gonna get your ass handed to you, esp if the controls decide to stop responding.

Thankfully, the screen doesnt get too busy, so you have a decent chance of being able to bop your way out of trouble.

Not a bad game, but if i had to choose between this and Golden axe 3, id be playing golden axe (or SOR2, which owns both these games)

Dan - 25 Feb 2009, 16:21 GMT

I actually quite liked Alien Storm, although as stated it was obviously Golden Axe with lasers and it was waaay to easy. It also got quite repetative with the same bad guys re-rearing their ugly anus-heads far too often but in a different colour. Overall though it was one of those games that was great for a quick go and did have a certain charm about it.

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