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Alien Storm

Alien Storm

Dec 31, 1990

Main game

2.95 average rating based on 83 ratings

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Alien Storm is a side-scrolling beat 'em up. The game resembles Golden Axe, with a similar artistic style, three playable characters (a man, a woman, and a novelty character) and pick-up or power-up special attacks. The player (one player only on the Master System version, up to two players on the Mega Drive version, three on the arcade version) selects from the three different characters to embark upon a quest to save the Earth from an alien invasion. All of the Busters are playable from the beginning of the game. There are 6 missions to complete (8 in the Mega … More
Alien Storm is a side-scrolling beat 'em up. The game resembles Golden Axe, with a similar artistic style, three playable characters (a man, a woman, and a novelty character) and pick-up or power-up special attacks. The player (one player only on the Master System version, up to two players on the Mega Drive version, three on the arcade version) selects from the three different characters to embark upon a quest to save the Earth from an alien invasion. All of the Busters are playable from the beginning of the game. There are 6 missions to complete (8 in the Mega Drive version) with several stages, and each mission has the player blasting aliens, from the streets to the mother ship, where the mother of all aliens can be found. This task becomes increasingly difficult with each new mission, and the aliens are capable of hiding inside objects such as plants, postboxes, trashcans, drums, and other items. Each mission has an objective such as rescuing people or destroying an UFO. When dealing with a few aliens, flying heads will appear, which can be shot to collect life or energy. Energy is used specifically to power the energy based attacks of the player's weapon (such as flames or electricity) and to use the much more powerful special weapons. In a similar format as other early Sega arcade games, each character has unlimited usage of various short-range attacks, i.e. punches, kicks. Along with these standard attacks, each character has their own individual weapon (Garth's weapon that shoots lightning is replaced with a flame weapon in the Master System version). Special attacks are also included, and vary depending on the character chosen at the start of the game. For instance, Garth summons an U.S. Air Force starship that drops bombs across the street (in the Master System version he has Karen's special, a ballistic missile strike). Scooter will teleport out of his present location and leave a series of bombs that will blow up on the appearance of aliens, after which he will re-appear (in the Mega Drive version he just explodes, leaving his head, which his new body returns to retrieve). Karen calls down a nuclear missile, which incinerates every foe on the screen. However, a large amount of energy is depleted by using each character's special attack, and cannot be used if the energy of the player's character is too low. There are few bosses in the game. The arcade original only features a single boss that has three distinct forms. The Mega Drive port has two of these forms as two separate bosses. At the end of each mission, the side-scrolling gameplay shifts to either a shooting gallery perspective where the player must take out the aliens that pop out of various locations, similar to the bonus stages of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer, both also by Sega, or a running section that is similar to the side scrolling mode but plays like a horizontal shooter instead with projectile weapons. Less
Developers
Team Shinobi
Publishers
Sega Corporation, Sega Enterprises, Ltd., Sega of America, Tec Toy, U.S. Gold
Platforms
Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST/STE, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Sega Master System/Mark III, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Wii, Xbox 360, ZX Spectrum
Genres
Arcade, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Shooter
Themes
Action, Science fiction
Steam
View on Steam
Release Dates
1990 (Worldwide)
Arcade
Jun 28, 1991 Full Release (Japan)
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Jul 01, 1991 Full Release (Europe)
Sega Master System/Mark III
Jul 1991 Full Release (North_America)
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Sep 1991 Full Release (Europe)
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
1991 Full Release (Europe)
Amiga, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
1991 Full Release (North_America)
Atari ST/STE, Commodore C64/128/MAX
Feb 1992 Full Release (Brazil)
Sega Master System/Mark III
Mar 1992 Full Release (Brazil)
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Mar 27, 2007 (Japan)
Wii
Dec 17, 2007 (North_America)
Wii
2007 (Worldwide)
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Jan 11, 2008 (Europe)
Wii
Oct 26, 2010 (Worldwide)
Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows)
User Stats
234
In Collection
16
Wish Listed
4
Playing
66
Backlogged
How Long Is Alien Storm?
Main story: 1.5 hours
Total completions: 3
Related Content
Floweypowey
Floweypowey gave Dec 3, 2022
Floweypowey gave Dec 3, 2022
I feel alienated from Sega
This review is for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version

Alien Storm is an interesting sci-fi spin of the Golden Axe-formula, replacing the melee combat with close-ranged energy weapons, giving this title a weird feel of being half-beat 'em up, half-run n' gun. Much similar to its spiritual predecessors, the main focus of the game is about positioning and crowd control, emphasised by a dodge roll and high jump that gives the game a high pulse.

Sadly, the unique concept is hampered by unimpressive level design, with close to no stage unique-gimmicks. Coupled with low enemy variety - and more importantly the different enemies themselves not requiring notably different methods to beat - there is nothing really memorable about the experience as a whole apart from the core mechanics.

With the main gameplay of defeating enemies along a corridor being stale, Sega have tried to spice things up with some shooting gallery-sections. These control horribly and was by far the worst part of the game according to me. There are also two short auto scrolling gun sections offers some excitement, but the overall lack of set pieces is unsettling for being an action game without much else to offer, especially when both music and graphics are embarrassingly primitive. Bear in …

Read More

Alien Storm is an interesting sci-fi spin of the Golden Axe-formula, replacing the melee combat with close-ranged energy weapons, giving this title a weird feel of being half-beat 'em up, half-run n' gun. Much similar to its spiritual predecessors, the main focus of the game is about positioning and crowd control, emphasised by a dodge roll and high jump that gives the game a high pulse.

Sadly, the unique concept is hampered by unimpressive level design, with close to no stage unique-gimmicks. Coupled with low enemy variety - and more importantly the different enemies themselves not requiring notably different methods to beat - there is nothing really memorable about the experience as a whole apart from the core mechanics.

With the main gameplay of defeating enemies along a corridor being stale, Sega have tried to spice things up with some shooting gallery-sections. These control horribly and was by far the worst part of the game according to me. There are also two short auto scrolling gun sections offers some excitement, but the overall lack of set pieces is unsettling for being an action game without much else to offer, especially when both music and graphics are embarrassingly primitive. Bear in mind, this title came one year after MUSHA.

So what we're left with is an action game that does not look good, does not sound good and offers surprisingly low on the action-front. The saving grace is that the strategic gunplay and movement options are really interesting, but apart from that, Alien Storm can not be considered more than merely a light breeze of its actual potential.

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FiretheFlameLord
FiretheFlameLord gave Oct 8, 2022
FiretheFlameLord gave Oct 8, 2022
ALIEN STORM REVIEW: (SMS)
This review is for the Sega Master System/Mark III version

Alien Storm is a 1990 progressive fighting and shooter game.Sega, the producer and distributor of the game, did a great job.The story of the game is as follows.Aliens are invading the Earth.They are sending a warrior to save the world.The gameplay is as follows.you have a choice between 3 characters. Dec.in this game consisting of 4 parts, you kill aliens.The music of the game is very beautiful.If you are not too obsessed with graphics and you like retro games like me, this game is for you.My rating for the game: 10/10 (y) Good games to everyone 🙂

0
theWellRedMage
theWellRedMage gave Jan 18, 2018
theWellRedMage gave Jan 18, 2018
Alien Storm (1990) reviewed by the Hopeful Handheld Mage

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.” -H.G.Wells, The War Of The Worlds

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After completing my analysis of the Golden Axe series (for now!), I wasn’t too sure where to go next. Then I remembered another beat-em-up developed by Golden Axe creator Makoto Uchida in 1990… Alien Storm was a game that I fixated on in my youth, but seems to have been forgotten about today. It’s a game that Sega has never revisited. I sometimes wonder why… is it because Sega saw Alien Storm as a weak sister to Golden Axe?

“The idea behind Alien Storm comes from the movie Ghostbusters – there is even a poster that says “Alien Busters” in the game.” -Interview with Makoto Uchida from joypad.fr, 19 November 2015

There is no doubting the influence of Golden Axe on Alien Storm. As he did with Golden Axe, Uchida took the inspiration for Alien Storm from a classic 80’s film and then he applied the successful Golden Axe formula …

Read More

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.” -H.G.Wells, The War Of The Worlds

.

After completing my analysis of the Golden Axe series (for now!), I wasn’t too sure where to go next. Then I remembered another beat-em-up developed by Golden Axe creator Makoto Uchida in 1990… Alien Storm was a game that I fixated on in my youth, but seems to have been forgotten about today. It’s a game that Sega has never revisited. I sometimes wonder why… is it because Sega saw Alien Storm as a weak sister to Golden Axe?

“The idea behind Alien Storm comes from the movie Ghostbusters – there is even a poster that says “Alien Busters” in the game.” -Interview with Makoto Uchida from joypad.fr, 19 November 2015

There is no doubting the influence of Golden Axe on Alien Storm. As he did with Golden Axe, Uchida took the inspiration for Alien Storm from a classic 80’s film and then he applied the successful Golden Axe formula to it. Our three heroes (Garth, Karen and robot Scooter) are the Alien Busters, burger van owners who also protect Earth from aliens on the side. As with Golden Axe, all three Alien Busters have different weapons and special attacks, though in the arcade you could play as all three Alien Busters at the same time.

Uchida added some variation to the Golden Axe formula in order to keep the player’s attention. Two different levels, a side-on run-and-gun section and an Operation Wolf-style shooting gallery, are interspersed throughout the game, which was something different in 1990. The two genres would have formed two individual games back then, so it is unusual to see the two genres mixed together.

“The other reason that pushed us to use this universe is that the project designer was responsible (for) Alien Syndrome and he was very good at drawing all kinds of cool and scary creatures.” -Interview with Makoto Uchida from joypad.fr, 19 November 2015

The other change from Golden Axe was the setting and enemies. The aliens in Alien Storm weren’t the usual blobs – they were slimy, gory creatures that wouldn’t look out of place of a B-Movie sci-fi film. I imagine that was one of the selling points of the Alien Storm arcade game – though the beat-em-up market was getting crowded in 1990, the focus was mainly on street gangs, not space monsters. From all accounts, Uchida enjoyed designing the alien monsters and the variety of aliens were a testament to his enthusiasm for the project.

When Sega made the decision to port Alien Storm to the Mega Drive, the three player mode was lost and the game was restructured in order to ease the frustrations of the arcade game and to fit the game onto a Mega Drive cart. The port was sold on the familar Sega premise that it was like playing the arcade machine in your home, yet despite the arcade pedigree, Alien Storm never caught the imagination in the same way Golden Axe did. Maybe people thought it was too similar to Golden Axe, maybe people didn’t like the changes made to the formula.

But is Alien Storm just a Golden Axe clone that is best forgotten or does it have merits of its own?

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.com/2018/01/18/alien-storm/

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FiretheFlameLord
FiretheFlameLord updated their status Oct 8, 2022
FiretheFlameLord updated their status Oct 8, 2022

ALIEN STORM REVIEW: (GENESIS) Alien Storm is a 1990 progressive fighting and shooter game.Sega, the producer and distributor of the game, did a great job.The story of the game is the same as the previous game.The gameplay is also considered the same, but it consists of 8 episodes, not 4 episodes.The music of the game is very beautiful.If you are not too obsessed with graphics and you like retro games like me, this game is for you.My rating for the game: 10/10 (y) Good games to everyone 🙂

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AlfredoSalza
AlfredoSalza updated their status May 18, 2016
AlfredoSalza updated their status May 18, 2016

Completed on a Genesis console, Easy difficulty.

Meh.

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