Alpha Mission is a vertical scrolling shooter that has similarities to Xevious, with the use of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.
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Vertical schmup. Great SNK remake or port. Either way it's a great throw back and great gameplay.
A Xevious inspired shooter with some incredibly annoying bosses.
Fun shooter but, due to its age, has very arcadic like elements. If you are willing to put up with the game being unfair at points, it is a very fun shooter to play as the ship transformations are fun to play around with and this is the first game in the genre that I have seen to have negative power ups.
For the love of God why do the bosses have so much health
Alpha Mission is the first NES conversion of SNK's arcade titles. The studio was not the one we know today and their games were generally clones of popular concepts: Micon Kit (1978) and its sequels adapted Breakout (1976), while Ozma Wars (1978) and Zarzon (1981) were inspired by Space Invaders (1978). Alpha Mission does follow this logic, as it appears to be a clone of Xevious (1983).
The title places us on board the Syd, a spaceship whose purpose is to repel the attack of a space confederation. Like Xevious, our ship is equipped with lasers to attack aerial targets and air-to-ground missiles for static targets. It is possible to upgrade the arsenal in two ways: either by collecting three identical ship designs, or by spending energy in the menu to choose the desired upgrade. The problem with the first method is that the blueprints never drop enough. In two loops, I never got around to upgrading my ship in this way. This makes it necessary to go the purchase route, which allows for significant upgrades. The fire and thunder upgrades are expedients that have to be saved for critical moments, as they usually decimate enemies for a limited time. This could be an interesting system, but it is surrounded by a general mediocrity. The title is displeasing, as the technical realisation is so messy and the opponents' movements unreadable. The player will spend most of their time complaining about the chaotic nature of projectiles and enemies: homing shots are quite awful to handle, as their pathfinding is so strange – the shot targets our ship, but ends up moving away from it after a while, which can be surprising when trying to dodge them. Above all, the game is rather undemonstrative in the importance of upgrades. If they are necessary, it is difficult to know which ones are really useful at a given time. Learning is not helped by the fact that all upgrades are limited in time, which disincentivise their purchase.
This inability to effectively communicate crucial information through game design is both a feature of the NES era and of early SNK games. Athena (1986) and Ikari Warriors (1986), although in different genres, have the same issues. As it stands, it seems impossible to recommend Alpha Mission, even though there are some interesting ideas that form the basis of the title: but the mediocrity of the execution largely buries them.
The title places us on board the Syd, a spaceship whose purpose is to repel the attack of a space confederation. Like Xevious, our ship is equipped with lasers to attack aerial targets and air-to-ground missiles for static targets. It is possible to upgrade the arsenal in two ways: either by collecting three identical ship designs, or by spending energy in the menu to choose the desired upgrade. The problem with the first method is that the blueprints never drop enough. In two loops, I never got around to upgrading my ship in this way. This makes it necessary to go the purchase route, which allows for significant upgrades. The fire and thunder upgrades are expedients that have to be saved for critical moments, as they usually decimate enemies for a limited time. This could be an interesting system, but it is surrounded by a general mediocrity. The title is displeasing, as the technical realisation is so messy and the opponents' movements unreadable. The player will spend most of their time complaining about the chaotic nature of projectiles and enemies: homing shots are quite awful to handle, as their pathfinding is so strange – the shot targets our ship, but ends up moving away from it after a while, which can be surprising when trying to dodge them. Above all, the game is rather undemonstrative in the importance of upgrades. If they are necessary, it is difficult to know which ones are really useful at a given time. Learning is not helped by the fact that all upgrades are limited in time, which disincentivise their purchase.
This inability to effectively communicate crucial information through game design is both a feature of the NES era and of early SNK games. Athena (1986) and Ikari Warriors (1986), although in different genres, have the same issues. As it stands, it seems impossible to recommend Alpha Mission, even though there are some interesting ideas that form the basis of the title: but the mediocrity of the execution largely buries them.
I hated this lol. Why are these bosses so difficult and have so much health? / lo odié con toda mi alma ¿Por qué los bosses de este juego son tan difíciles y tienen tanta vida?