Alien Soldier is a bizarre game. It starts with a 4-minute text crawl describing all of its extremely over the top and confusing lore (which is detailed even further in depth in the japanese manual), but the actual game doesn't have a single word of dialogue in it. The character is basically half the screen's height, controls are clunky and a bit unintuitive and despite allegedly having "levels", they're basically 30-second bits of holding right while tapping the shoot button at your leisure, with bosses being the real meat of the game.

There's a method to the madness, though. The game isn't amazing at communicating this to you (Alien Soldier is definitely the sort of game where you'd really need to read the manual, or just look up a guide today), but it's one of the most nuanced and rewarding action games of the era. Every system feeds into another one. At full health, your invincible dash turns into a powerful charge that consumes some health. Double tapping the attack button lets you do a short range attack that turns bullets into health, which means that if you play perfectly you can chain the above charge and shred through most bosses. All the weapons serve a purpose, both firing modes have their own uses (you can shoot while moving or standing still, but the former wastes a lot of ammo and isn't always viable, though sometimes necessary), and everything about the gameplay is very carefully considered. I don't know how Treasure did it, but even today Alien Soldier is such a tight and well-realized action game that few can match it.

... At its best, anyways. It is unfortunately marred by a couple of pretty annoying sections, around the mid-late game. There's a couple of stages (read: boss fights) where the environment is completely dark, and you need to fire to briefly light it up. This is hard on the eyes and generally very annoying, but not a big deal. There's a boss battle a bit later on, against a transforming mech, that has five phases, with no checkpoint. No other boss has more than one phase, which makes this by far the hardest fight in the game, even compared to the overall simple final boss. A difficulty spike isn't in itself a horrible thing, but two of the phases use a really annoying, clunky "flying" system where you're constantly wrestling against currents, which takes a lot to learn and shouldn't be something you have to figure out how to wrestle with well into a hard fight. It's way more frustrating than any other part of the game, which overall flows pretty well, and while it doesn't ruin it is is a sore spot. Also, switching weapons, which you'll have to do a lot, is very clunky and often gets you hit, but that might just be a skill issue.

One last thing I'd like to note is that this game is surprisingly extremely friendly to newcomers. There's two difficulties, "SUPEREASY" and "SUPERHARD", which sound like they're miles apart but in reality they're the same in gameplay, SUPEREASY just gives you infinite lives. It also allows you to change the speed of the game, which is absolutely not something I'd expect from a 1995 game but extremely welcome, though I didn't really use it.

This is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, if not in general definitely one of my favorites from Treasure's catalog. I don't know if I'd call it a flawless game, but I still want to pay it respect for the great amount of love and care put into its creation. It becomes more impressive seeing how much else they had planned that didn't make it to the final release!
Almost every boss poses you a unique challenge in the form of a miniature puzzle you have to solve to progress; a veritable gauntlet that tests your competency of all of the game's mechanics. That said each encounter is intuitive once you pass its initial hurdle, allowing for prioritization of speed which creates an excellent feedback loop as incentivized by score bonuses. It feels really good to (literally) blaze through bosses back-to-back in seconds that previously had me stuck for many minutes.
Unlike many other Treasure titles, the skill floor is low enough that you can pick up and learn the game pretty quickly. Not to mention the continue/password system makes practicing difficult sections very convenient, a rare luxury of games of this era. I feel like it perfectly embodies "difficult but fair" while still being a blast to play.
All in all, I didn't expect to fall in love with this game as much as I did. Try it and you might feel the same.

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...

Cleared on June 17th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 12/160)

This game is a very strong contender for my favorite Sega Genesis game. I won't say that it is until I've cleared my challenge, but I would be surprised if anything else could even top it.

You play as Epsilion and as you'd expect from a game like this, you run, you gun, you jump, and you maneuver against enemies. This game is brought to you by the same developers of Gunstar Heroes which is considered their own take on Contra. You might think they should've just made a Gunstar Heroes sequel, but Alien Soldier is a lot more different than just another Contra competitor, and dare I say, I don't think I've run into another game quite like it.

On top of the traditional abilities that you have, you can also dash across the screen which will give you a brief window of invincibility while letting you reposition against the enemies, and you will need it. The game was built with this mechanic in mind.
You can hover in the air which lets you get better precision against the enemies although you can't move unless you dash which then cancels the hover. Pressing the hover button again will let you double jump. You can move on ceilings, and when your health is full, you can dash to unleash a devastating Phoenix Force except it takes a small chunk of your health. It's really negligible and only applied so you can't use it repeatedly.
On top of that, you can use a "Counter" which lets you convert most projectiles into health orbs. While they also drop from enemies, they won't usually be present in bosses and thus learning this mechanic is crucial to survive.

And guess what? The Treasure developers actually corrected the issue Gunstar had that didn't let you switch between Free or Fixed mode on a whim, and here, they have a combination that lets you switch although it's more complicated than what Contra Hard Corps would simply have you do. In fact, the controls in this game are actually very complex for a Sega Genesis game.

Some things are simple enough to understand like Jump, Shoot, Run, Hover, and Weapon Switch. However, to switch between Free and Fixed mode, you need to press the Weapon Switch button + Down. To dash, you need to press Down + Jump at the same time. To counter, you need to tap the Shoot button twice.

Keep in mind that you need to factor all of this in, master the mechanics, all while managing the four weapons you have active at a time because they aren't unlimited, so switching between the weapons you got is mandatory, but what are the weapons?

Buster Force is the standard straight line shot that fires repeatedly. It's not a bad weapon to end up with although you may have trouble getting it to connect with some of the bosses in the game.
Ranger Force is the spread shot weapon that's damage is so lacking that you should definitely avoid using above all else, especially in the mid and late game.
Flame Force is the close ranged high damage dealing shot and pretty useful if you can afford to get up close.
Homing Force is a weapon that, as the name suggests, homes projectiles at nearby enemies making it quite possibly the most versatile weapon in the game and it's not bad at dealing with bosses as long as you aren't playing Superhard Difficulty.
Sword Force is a thin beam of light that is similar to the Flamethrower that getting up close deals more damage, but the difference is that it deals more damage up close while being weaker the farther you are. I never realized it in my playthrough.
Lancer Force is my favorite weapon as it just a beam of light that deals immense damage and a must have to be able to clear out bosses much easier although it has very low ammunition count, so it's more high risk high reward.

So there is a lot you need to understand and it's not just your character you need to understand, but the bosses as well because there are 25 stages and each of them has a boss at the end. Yes, there are 25 bosses in this game and that's what the game's primary focus is on since it doesn't usually take long for you to get from one boss to the next and during these intermission periods, you're just shooting up lesser enemies to collect health orbs and countering their projectiles for that same reason, all while finding these weapon capsules which can either let you swap weapons or, by shooting it, you can force rotate it to the weapon you shot with and upgrade the ammo count.

The bosses can range from fairly easy once you get it down, notably the earlier fights, to being really tough and in general, this game is just really hard. However, there is a mercy aspect to the game called "Supereasy mode". If you are put off with being forced back to the beginning after 3 game overs, I feel you. It can be quite tedious, but given this is developed by Treasure, they took a page from Gunstar Heroes unlimited continues and incorporate it here although they don't do so by default. In order to access Supereasy mode, you need to go into the settings. On top of that, they slightly nerfed the health of the bosses which is considered a boon given how bosses all have a time limit, yeah, I did not mention that part. Plus, you can even slow down the game to give you time to react to the boss mechanics or otherwise give some extra time to switch between weapons because it's not like Ratchet and Clank where the whole game pauses to let you switch weapons.

Backed up with amazing gameplay is the space anthropomorphic aesthetic that reminds me a lot of Star Fox, and many of the bosses have impressive and creative designs. There is one I really want to gush over, but it comes too late in the game, and I don't want to spoil it even though the game came out in 1995. But let's just say you'll want to look out for Level 23.

The music itself is also pretty good and really fits the badass feel of the overall game. Charging through the enemy lines and barraging aliens in your wake. There is also a Gunstar Heroes track that was used in this game which I thought was kinda cool.

And the thing that surprised me is that the majority of the game was done by one person. He eventually had to get help to meet the deadlines and they originally planned to have 100 bosses (if it did, then this would've really been the Dark Souls of the 90s), but for what they were able to get in the game, it's impressive. I'd say I'd recommend this game to anyone looking for something really exciting, but even with the unlimited continues, I understand that the complicated controls may be too much if you aren't familiar with the Contra style of games. My advice, in this case, is to play Gunstar Heroes first and then go into this game. Even if it seems too much still, just know that the game will let you get accustom to the controls as long as it takes before you even get to the first level.

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