Que joguinho gostoso de jogar, pqp! Um simpático run n gun que é uma jóia obscurecida. Frenético e impiedoso na dificuldade como um bom jogo desse gênero costuma ser, ele é bem fluido na movimentação do nosso etezinho que dá nome ao jogo. Pular, esquivar, abaixar, andar abaixado atirando, entrar dentro do chão e puxar inimigos pra dentro dele, atirar, e usar aqueles tiros carregados alá Megaman( tiros bem efetivos por sinal) e tudo responde suculentamente bem, o que é maravilhoso pra esses tipos de jogos. Referências e homenagens a Metal Slug e Contra estão recheadas aqui e pra cerejear o bolo, temos uma historinha simplizinha mas com muito humor satírico com direito a russos, americanos, UFOS, AREA 51, mísseis (com destaque a um mini game bônus no qual controlamos um míssel soviético [ com um formato sugestivo kkk] que deve ser guiado até os EUA) e tudo mais...
Se você gosta de jogos como Metal Slug, Contra e Cuphead, você vai gostar bastante desse jogo... Só vai.

Newgrounds was a staple in the burgeoning internet landscape of the 2000s. It was one of the pioneers in content creation. Content creators are so omnipresent today that becoming one seems like a viable career, but these things didn’t exist in the days of Newgrounds. Newgrounds was a collection of artists that wanted to express themselves on a radically new platform: the internet. Newgrounds was one of the biggest hubs for flash animation, artwork, music, etc., and the creators had limitless artistic freedom on the site. I was too young at the time to plunge into the cutting-edge goldmine of Newgrounds, but a friend showed me the wonders of early internet content on the site at the ripe age of 9. I was fascinated at what Newgrounds had to offer, even risking getting in trouble watching videos involving Mario and Sonic swearing and doing drugs when I was a kid while waiting patiently for these videos to load on a dial-up connection.

Newgrounds was indicative of the indie landscape of the 2000s. The internet was merely in its adolescence in the 2000s and hadn’t blossomed into changing the landscape of the entire world just yet. This gave creators a new avenue to make a name for themselves without needing the budgets of big businesses to finance their dreams. Conversely, the indie video game market was starting to emerge during this time. The overlap between Newgrounds and the indie game boom comes with Alien Hominid: a flash game developed by subsidiary Newgrounds-related developer The Behemoth. Initially, this was a free-to-play game on the website but was released on every major console of the early 2000s. The game was a surprise for everyone who wasn’t already familiar with the style and tone of the content featured on the website. They were dazzled by its weird direction, old-school influence, and twisted sense of humor. While I can appreciate aspects of Alien Hominid, I am not as beguiled by it as some critics were back in the day.

Alien Hominid lets the player play as a nameless yellow alien that adorably looks like an intergalactic bug with opposable thumbs. The FBI immediately chases down this alien and tries to apprehend him. Fortunately, the alien is armed with a blaster, grenades, and a sharp, knife-like weapon to defend himself. There are also vehicle sections and sections where the alien pilots a saucer, turning the level into a multi-directional shooter. Immediately as the game begins, the player will probably notice that this game’s biggest influence is Metal Slug. Alien Hominid is a tried and true run-and-gun game with the unique difference of having the art style of an early 2000s flash cartoon. Most enemies die in one hit, as does the player if they aren’t careful. This leads me to my biggest criticism of the game and the reason why I’m not too keen on this game: the difficulty.

In many of my reviews, I’ve heavily criticized the use of arcade-style difficulty in console games. Consoles don’t eat quarters, so I’m not exactly sure why so many games act as they do. I find having to start the entire game over again to be an engaging feature or something that compliments the difficulty. I’m giving Alien Hominid the benefit of the doubt that it’s merely emulating old-school titles with this feature, but it suffers regardless. As far as tributing the run-and-gun genre is concerned, Alien Hominid is still leagues behind the games that inspired it. The flash cartoon presentation isn’t the factor that causes this, but the hiccups that come with indie-developed titles. The normal combat is fine and is just as tough but fair as any other run-and-gun game. It’s Alien Hominid’s bosses that are worth criticizing.

In a run-and-gun game like Contra, the bosses will come at the player with a barrage of things to kill them. Luckily, most weapons have a large enough range to deal with each boss. Many bosses in Alien Hominid have specific weak points that are the only way to damage them. This is as early as the first boss in the game, a robot with a small, green eye on the center of its head. The blaster is a piddly weapon that can only be shot in two directions, so the accuracy needed to beat this boss needs to be incredibly precise. The boss also only takes a minuscule amount of damage from each shot, grating on my patience as he tears away my life with his head cannon. I admittedly have not gotten very far in Alien Hominid, but instances like this are present throughout the game as well. I’d be surprised if most people have ever completed this game, or at least without cheating. If you’re going to emulate the difficulty of old-school games, there should be a 21st-century game genie equivalent to get through it. It would be authentic, after all.

Alien Hominid is a game that I appreciate for merely existing. Newgrounds was a staple of my childhood (for better or for worse), and Alien Hominid’s place in the history of the website and indie video games cannot be understated. Despite its rocky charm, I cannot look past its faults. I know arcade-style difficulty was not present in most flash games on Newgrounds, so the developers implementing them concerning its run-and-gun influences turn me off completely. The charm does not make up for its faulty gameplay either. Alien Hominid is essentially The Behemoth, essentially charging a mere flash game at full price in the major video game market. Its amateurish charm starts to verge on being tawdry because there isn’t much of a solid foundation in the gameplay.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com

funny little creature
i love him lots
i wanna see more of him

i am awful at this game
7.5/10

Literal um metal slug desenhado no flash com outra temática

Extremamente difícil e ao mesmo tempo divertido de se jogar com um amigo

Jogava bastante quando criança achava maneirin tenho muitas boas lembranças, re-visito as vezes.

Some decent moment, some exciting moments and I spent way too long playing the little PDA minigames but its let down thanks to having a difficulty level that feels flat out unfair and unfun at times.

Im all for challenging the player but having the game flat out being as mean spirited as this is spoils what could be a great time.

(p.s: this covers both the original and HD re-releases. Theres very little difference between the two content-wise)

A kooky little side-scrolling shooter that has a lot of art . . . a lot of heart . . . but not a lot of game design chops. The game is nifty and has good mechanics, but it feels kinda rickety and inconsistent pretty often. It doesn't have the uber-tight feel that's present in the Metal Slug and Contra classics it was inspired by.

Of course, as a kid, I didn't give a shit. Because it has a lot of charm and style, and this made for satisfying gameplay! It's just tough going back to it and trying to take its game design seriously these days.

I'm not going to bother I know anything about substantial about Newgrounds games; I never grew up with that era of the internet. My intrigue with Alien Hominid is that it even existed on home consoles in the first place. It doesn't perform the best (at least not on PS2), but it's some good fun on both the main campaign and the PDA games bundled with it. This is a game and art style that would have worked incredibly well on console, but I can understand the simple port conversion. Aside from that, it has its moments but Alien Hominid has not aged well with its unfair difficulty spikes and limited lives. It would be nice to see a revisit of this game, but otherwise it remains fittingly as a curiosity.