Alien Storm
System: Genesis
Release Date: July 1991
Developer: Sega CS
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Beat ‘em Up
An alien menace is invading Earth and only you can save the day in Alien Storm! Only the Alien Busters have the weaponry and the gumption to take on the extraterrestrial hordes. Your ammo isn’t unlimited though, so be smart with your attacks. Do you have what it takes to get through eight missions of aliens shooting, tackling, and smashing action?
You begin by choosing one of three characters. Gordon has a Thunder Bazooka that attacks with electricity. Karla has a Fire Blaster that burns foes in her way. Slammer the robot has an electric whip that gives really good range. I’m going to call this an alien version of Golden Axe. It plays slightly differently, but many of the animations seem lifted, especially walking toward the top of the screen. You walk around fighting enemies and trying not to die. Your attacks use your limited energy gauge, but you have a lot of energy, so you might feel pretty comfortable using it. That is until you press Button A and use your special attack, blasting everything on screen at the cost of a buttload of energy. Slammer, for example, self destructs, making this a viable technique when you’re about dead.
Attacking leaves you vulnerable to an enemy that sneaks around behind you. I found that using the Leap Attack by pressing Button C and then B was a way to do a bit of damage and conserve energy. It took a lot longer to kill something and was much more boring, but it was a tactic. There’s also a running jump attack where you fly over your enemy while shooting down, but this is difficult to connect with. Your goal is to keep enemies away from you while you take out others. If you can double up, you’ll be happy to kill two aliens with one stone.
At the end of the beat ‘em up levels is a shooting gallery, where you destroy the interior of a building while shooting at aliens. Here, you can find energy batteries and the occasional medkit to replenish life. As long as you take out enemies before they get a chance to attack here, you’ll be happy. There are a couple levels that are glorified shoot ‘em ups. You run along shooting aliens as they come on screen from the right. There are only a couple of bosses to deal with, but they are definitely gatekeepers to getting farther along.
When you make it to the alien ship, you have to go through a maze to find the final shooting gallery boss. After you get tired of the story mode, you can take part in the Duel. Again, this is what you’d expect from Golden Axe. You take on a series of matches against enemies, but with a limited energy level. I ran out of energy each time I tried, meaning you have to play it lame in order to win. No thanks.
Graphics: 2.5
The enemies can look pretty gruesome, but the backgrounds look pretty pixelated in composition.
Sound: 2.5
Music is pretty decent, but the sound effects don’t sound particularly pleasant.
Gameplay: 2.5
You’ve got some moves, but not enough viable ones to make your life any easier.
Difficulty: 2.5
Unless you’re playing cheaply with running tackles, I didn’t have enough life or energy to get through the game in the credits allowed.
Fun Factor: 2.5
There really aren’t that many enemy types to keep things fresh and that’s pretty disappointing.
Overall Rating: 2.5
Alien Storm earns a B-. This is not Golden Axe. It certainly isn’t a bad game, but it has a lot of room where it could have been better. If you need an early beat ‘em up, give this one a shot.