Treasure are the kinda devs to make a weird obscure scrimblo run and gun where you play as a reformed, reincarnated terrorist alien anthropomorphic eagle with headcrushing thighs, rush development due to a rocky dev cycle and still come out with one of the best games in the genre. I'm genuinely at a loss for words, like it's evident the game was rushed and it busts your balls a bit in places and definitely requires some trial and error but once you get past that it just works so well in every single area. Plays just as good as it looks and sounds. Those bitcrushed mega drive voice samples give me immense joy.

(Deleted my previous review because I was able to actually beat it to avoid confusion)

Este juego exige buenos reflejos, buen timing y ser muy ágil, ya que alien soldier se caracteriza por su dificultad, que, a medida que vas avanzando, los jefes y los escenarios se vuelven más desafiantes (aunque para mí, los últimos niveles los sentí fácil, el jefe final me lo esperaba mas difícil). Puede ser frustrante para la mayoría, perderás en más de una ocasión (no puedes revivir después de morir xd), pero eso no impide que se pueda disfrutar de este juegazo. La presentación de la historia es mucho texto, debieron de usar sprites de fondos para ilustrar la historia, como lo hacen en una stage. Los controles no están mal, aunque a veces en la partida cuando realizaba un dash este se iba a la dirección opuesta donde apuntaba (sobre todo en la parte de agua y del espacio).

En mi opinión, este juego junto con contra hard corps los considero de los mejores para la genesis. 100% recomendable.

Before I say anything else, I want to say that Alien Soldier is an extremely effective experience that accomplishes everything it sets out to do. However, given that backloggd scores are simply an average of user scores, I feel comfortable with giving this game a score that reflects my own level of enjoyment with it rather than a measure of its objective quality.

So much about Alien Soldier is perfect, but in a way I don't personally enjoy. Given the game's frantic pace I'm totally onboard with the weapon wheel not pausing the action, but I don't like how many frames it takes to appear - if I'm in the middle of a pitched battle I want to be like "A, left, left, go!" and not "A (wait) (get hit)". I also really dislike how getting hit by anything knocks you out of the weapon wheel. I really love your character's moveset - being able to swap firing modes a la Contra Hard Corps is a great option. Having a powerful dash attack available at full health turns your lifebar into a resource, and having the ability to turn enemy bullets into life bonuses gives you a nice risk vs. reward way of interacting with that resource. However, I prefer the way Gunstar Heroes encouraging expressivity with its large moveset, as opposed to how Alien Soldier seems to railroad the player into an optimal approach and loadout through its unforgiving time limit and with some weapons simply not working against some bosses. Also, while I'm no stranger to difficult games, I prefer games that gradually ease you into the masochism (see Rabi-Ribi and Contra) rather than throw you into the deep end of a hydrochloric acid pool like Alien Soldier does.

Then again, I did finish it! Alien Soldier is proof that games don't need to be fair as long as they are motivating - many of the challenges seemed downright mean-spirited, but the combination of the stellar presentation and tight gameplay kept me soldiering on. Alien Soldier is perfect for certain profiles of players: gamers in the 90s who would generally persevere far longer on games they bought, and people willing to sink a sizable amount of time into a challenge that brings supreme satisfaction to surmount. If you're not one of those people - say a casual scrub like me - too bad. Like the fabled honey badger, Alien Soldier doesn't care; it invites forces the player to play on its terms, take it or leave it. In my case, the terms were "I'll stomp your scrotum into the ground like a cigarette butt, then make you swallow your pride and select SuperEasy mode, then continue stomping anyway". And while my personal reaction to completing the game was "oh thank heavens, I feel so satisfied but I don't think I'll play this again", its general reception and average score vindicate it - I completely understand why this is a favorite of so many people on here!

Would that more games gave as few shits as Alien Soldier.

+ boss rush
+ a e s t h e t i c s
+ soundtrack
+ armas fodas
+ É DA FUCKING TREASURE
+ É RAPIDO PA CARAIO
- É DIFÍCIL ABSURDAMENTE KKKK FODASE OS CARA NEM LIGARAM PRA BALANCEAMENTO

Before I burn all good will and am exiled from this site as a pariah for my review of Gunstar Heroes, allow me to just say Alien Soldier is really good. Great even! See, we can be friends!

Alien Soldier's tagline ("VISUALSHOCK! SPEEDSHOCK! SOUNDSHOCK! NOW IS TIME TO THE 68000 HEART ON FIRE!") perfectly sets up this intense late-generation Genesis game by Treasure, creators of the critically acclaimed Dynamite Headdy, and Gunstar Heroes, which some would describe as being "perfectly average." The main attraction here is the bosses, with run-and-gun action stages acting as more of a brief interlude than anything else. In a sense, it's a lot like Cuphead. Bosses are big and showy and often associated with a fun setpiece to really amp up the encounter. Figuring them out requires some trial and error, and when you finally figure out their patterns and master the rhythm of battle, it feels very satisfying taking them down. Some late game bosses get especially brutal (I'd like to draw attention to Seven Force, who is a fiend and a bastard), but the difficulty is well managed through most of the game.

There's a decent amount of weapons and skills at your disposal, and you'll need to get real familiar with them. Thankfully, Treasure did not overload the game with superfluous abilities or power ups, which gives Alien Soldier a more focused feel and allows the player to adapt and learn the game without getting too bogged down. This is especially good as you're going to constantly be in combat against very aggressive foes, which doesn't give you much wiggle room to experiment.

The presentation of this game is top notch, which almost goes without saying for Treasure. Character designs are especially great, with some truly grotesque looking enemies and inventive boss designs. While I think I like the overall aesthetic of Dynamite Headdy more, Alien Soldier goes a long way to show off the strength of Treasure's design staff.

While not a commentary on the game itself, I also want to draw attention to the walkthroughs up on GameFaQs. They're great not because they're super informative, but because they're both great examples of the author's voice not just shining through but becoming all-encompassing. At the risk of veering off into a tangent, I really miss old game walkthroughs. The amount of snark, color commentary, and lore theorizing that would be casually dropped in them is something that's completely absent from modern guides.

Alien Soldier was only available stateside through the Sega Channel back in 95, which means not a lot of people played it back in the day. Thankfully it's available through the Switch's Genesis app, but that requires paying an exorbitant fee for their ~expansion pass~, and I think that's highway robbery. But as I've advocated many times in the past, you can always download a ROM.

This game gives some great tools for a run and gun game, such as a satisfying dash move, which deals explosive damage at full health, a "counter" which turns projectiles into health, or reflects them back to the enemies, and 6 weapons balanced around their power and ammo drain.

The problems I have with Alien Soldier are that the actual levels feel tacked on. It's effectively a boss rush game, but for some reason you spend about 30 seconds in small corridor sections getting past easy enemies. It's not that these sections are completely pointless, they essentially let you get health and ammo between bosses, but they're so easy and short that you wonder why they bother putting enemies there at all instead of just giving you the free stuff between short corridors.

The game needed to be able to automatically swap weapons when one runs out of ammo, or have weapon swapping be a single button press. Trying to change weapons in the middle of a boss battle is a guarantee hit because of how little breathing room there is.

Some weapons also just flat out don't work on some bosses and I wasn't sure why that was.

Bosses themselves generally vary too much in difficulty, and definitely not in a linear way. Some of the earlier bosses were way harder than some of the ones in the later ones. In fact stage 20 has by far the hardest boss in the game, not only because it's 5 phases, but because the last phase is some true bullshit where you need to hit very specific parts of the boss (and the homing weapon doesn't work here), while dodging mines AND the bosses limbs. And since you're floating the entire time you can only dash left and right, not up and down. By contrast the stage 21 boss was one of the easiest in the game, and even the final boss is a complete joke once you work out how to damage it.

This game has all the tools for a fantastic game in its genre, but instead kinda just does the bare minimum with it. At least the bosses are generally fun, with 1 or 2 exceptions.

El juego puede ser algo complicado de entender los controles al principio, pero se pasa rápido y tienes acción por do quier, jefes increíbles, una presentación genial, un estilo artístico muy bueno y una dificultad desafiante. Aunque, como todos aquí, lo jugamos en super fácil, porque no me creo que alguien se pase el superhard salvo muy pocos en este mundo, y se nota, solo puedes morir una vez. En super fácil sigue siendo desafíante, y recompensador y sumamente divertido, pero el reto y el verdadero final, solo está reservado a un nicho muy profundo, y lastimosamente no soy uno de esos, pero igualmente en super easy (que no es fácil, para nada) es igualmente un desafío.

This is it. This is the peak of video games. It has all been downhill from here. It is essentially the sidescrolling action game perfected to a fine, glistening sheen. You have so many movement options, so many defensive and offensive options, and a whole HORDE of fun and interesting bosses to use those said options against all with their own unique and different fighting strategies. All while pushing the mega drives hardware to its absolute limit both visually and audibly. This game is Treasure's magnum opus, which is saying something since that company literally doesn't miss.

Eu conheci esse jogo recentemente, não tem nem um ano mais ou menos, mas quando eu joguei ele pela primeira vez, eu senti que ele era um jogo diferente e muito único, principalmente pra época que ele foi lançado. É um jogo de Mega Drive, mas mesmo tendo que aproveitar de um controle de pouquíssimos botões, ele ainda consegue ter mecânicas maravilhosas e muito complexas, é um jogo que passa facilmente por um de quinta geração. Muito bonito, o visual dele é sensacional, a trilha sonora é bacana, e o mais importante é a gameplay, extremamente difícil (talvez além do ponto kkkk), várias mecânicas interessantes, super dinâmico e rápido, pra quem gosta de desafios e coisas desse gênero esse jogo é certeiro. Me surpreendeu muito vindo de um console como Mega Drive, como eu já falei ali atrás, a quantidade de controles que você tem é absurda, nunca ia conseguir imaginar poder fazer tanta coisa com um controle de só 3 botões. Jogo muito completo, pra quem tem console velho sobrando em casa fica aí a recomendação.

What if we made a game that needs 7 buttons on a controller that only has 3? What if we had 26 different HUD options, but no rebinding or configuration at all? What if we made an action game where the greatest difficulty was battling the absolutely awful control scheme? What if instead of accurate hitboxes, and a variety of enemy attacks and hazards that require unique approaches, we just gave you a screen-wide dash with full i-frames that you spam non-stop? What if we made a boss rush game then filled it with worthless, harmless trash mobs that serve zero purpose beyond just to regen your energy between every fight?

The genius of Treasure knows no bounds...

Cool game. Boss rushes are fun and I appreciate all the variety brought to the table. The weapons feel pretty good to use and the birdman main character is cool. Only problem is I don't like fighting half the bosses. Too many can only be damaged in small weak spots that are infuriatingly guarded by their invincible limbs and even certain weapons just don't work on some bosses for some reason. Yeah I get that a flame weapon wouldn't work underwater but if you're suddenly going to make the last part of an already annoying 5-phase boss underwater I'd really appreciate if you didn't lock away half my weapons. Not to say there aren't fun fights but the annoying ones really dominated my experience since they took the longest to beat. The visuals are impressive given the system but I'm not a huge fan of the way some of the bosses are animated with their limbs floating around like puppets.