Alien Soldier (1995)

Do you...

• ...like challenging side-scrolling action games?
• ...enjoy experimenting with different weapon loadouts and cool movement abilities?
• ...always find yourself eager to get to the next big boss fight?
• ...need justification for the purchase of a Mega Drive or Switch Online Expansion Pack?
• ...want to be a weird anthropomorphic bird guy with guns?

If you answered "yes" to three or more of these questions, Alien Soldier has got you covered.

This game is mostly made up of a series of 25 boss fights with either super short stages or nothing at all between them. These bosses are no joke, with big healthbars, big damage output, stage hazards and other distractions, tricky movesets, and sometimes multiple phases. The game takes a minute to get used to, with slightly unusual controls and movement. Even the first boss can be a rude awakening, but once it clicks, it's an addictive ride that feels really fun and satisfying to complete.

Though the game has a hardcore reputation, there are a couple of key allowances that it makes. One is in the difficulty options, where you get two choices: "Super Easy" and "Super Hard". (Lol.) "Super Easy" is not actually easy, of course, but it's manageable and gives infinite continues. You can even slow the game down in the pause menu if that helps. On the easier mode at full speed, I managed to get through the game in about 3 hours.

No matter what, there's gonna be some real tough spots to get over. Stage 20 is a great example where everything comes together and probably the hardest part of the game. It's an endurance test with 5 totally distinct bosses in a row, which forces you to use every possible movement option in the game and several different offensive options. It seems unreasonable at first, but the phases are so well-designed that after just a few attempts at each phase I was able to learn and get it done.

There are lots of great little decisions all around this game. I love the fact that you get intentionally left with just 1 HP when you're about to die, a great setup for big hype comeback moments. Parrying some kinds of projectiles drops much-needed HP restoring items, which introduces some nice risk-reward tension. On the whole even though the game is mostly just bosses, they pace them out quite well. They do gradually escalate the intensity but also put easier ones here and there too.

This is a lean experience that is all about the action, and on that front it delivers super well. There are nice presentation elements here too at times, but not much else to say. Absolutely a game that's worth a shot for anyone looking to take next steps into some classic action games after trying out the obvious ones.

(actually part of the PS4 Sega Genesis Classics collection)

Super quick review - this game is essentially a 25+ boss gauntlet, sometimes with very short stages in between to offer you room to breathe. I had fun, but it is incredibly hard, some of the bosses being insanely difficult or with obtuse gimmicks that took me a while to figure out. If you play this one, remember the teleport dash is your best friend (and, well, essential to beating anything). Music and graphics very good for the time.

Edited to add: there are two difficulty settings. I beat this on “super easy” which was very, very hard. I imagine “super hard” is probably brutally un-fun.

Alien Soldier may be a tricky and difficult game to master, but its tight control system and absolute non-stop barrage of action and graphical prowess make this one of the finest games on the Genesis.

The story is a lump of text at the beginning and is thoroughly insane, featuring special parasitic super-animal-humans and there's a terrorist organization named Scarlet and their leader is almost assassinated and there's a coup and the leader gets thrown into the continuum but manages to possess a boy and become EPSILON-EAGLE and...yeah. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but allows the developers to push lots of zany baddies into the mix.

The main objective across 25 stages is for Epsilon to make his way to each boss, each with their own life meter and time limit. Each boss (even the ugly ones) are gorgeously detailed and have their own unique gimmicks and attacks with strategies that make for some very interesting set pieces. Whether it's a fly boss that gets caught in a spider-boss's web, a large gummi-bear looking creature that gets kidnapped with a lobster with very...penile arms, a kooky face from Gunstar Heroes, and a giant tiger with Wolverine-style claws. It's all there, and it's going to take every inch of the player's skill (on either of the two difficulties - Superhard and Supereasy, but even Supereasy is a significant challenge) to beat them out.

The player has a number of interesting abilities at their disposal and has six different weapons that they may carry four of (with their own ammo) at any time. Homing shots, spread shots, a small sword beam, a super laser - there's plenty at the player's disposal and it'll take keen knowledge of how each shot works (in fixed fire mode or free fire mode) to dispose of enemies. There's also a counter from tapping the shot button twice that will be invaluable to get health items from projectiles, a hover jump move, and a down+jump move that at max health will release a devastating attack that will take most boss meters down by a chunk.

The game's stages are short, but each are varied and have a wild amount of graphical effects, from gorgeous parallax to astounding rotations (the stars!) and some 3D effects as well. Most of the bosses are multi-segmented and it's an achievement to have them move the way they do with such performance on the Genesis.

Alien Soldier, for the trained player, might not take a little more than an hour or two, but it'll be a blast for anyone who plays. Fear not if you want to practice on Supereasy - it's still a decent challenge while preparing for the exhausting Superhard gauntlet.