Alien vs. Predator Review

The Alien vs. Predator franchise has a surprisingly long history. Many people are familiar with the two crossover movies from the 2000s, but these were not the only times the monsters fought each other. Alien vs. Predator actually started as a comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse. This crossover spawned many different video game tie-ins during the 1990s, including an arcade game created by Capcom.

This brings us to today’s title: Alien vs. Predator for the Super Nintendo. In this game, you play as a Predator and fight hordes of Xenomorphs in an arcade style beat ‘em up. Personally, I’m not usually a fan of this gameplay genre; I think beat 'em ups are a bit too repetitive. Still, I’m giving the game a fair chance since I’m a pretty big fan of the franchise. Let’s take a look and see if this game is worth checking out.

When you start the game, you’ll quickly notice that many of the enemies lack variety. Most of the time, you fight palette swapped versions of the same three Xenomorphs. You’ll also fight chestbursters and facehuggers, which are low to the ground and can only be killed with your slide attack. You’re given very little time to react, so they quickly become a nuisance.

Whoa, dude. Xenomorphs are, like, totally rad, man.

Oddly enough, you can only fight two enemies at a time. This makes the combat feel somewhat unengaging. Part of what made the Aliens such a threatening creature was their strength in numbers. The opening cinematic tells us that they easily overran an entire colony of humans, but their presence feels underwhelming in the actual gameplay. After a while, their movement patterns start to become predictable, which only adds to the monotony.

You’re given a pretty standard control scheme. Like many games of its kind, you can use different button combos to perform special attacks. For instance, if you grab onto an opponent, you can throw them across the screen, which feels satisfying. Also, you’re given a slide attack using the L and R buttons along with a plasma cannon using the Y Button.

One of the game’s biggest problems is that the ranged attacks feel a bit overpowered. If you stand on one side of the screen and repeatedly fire your plasma cannon, the Aliens are more or less unable to stop you. All you have to do is hold and release the Y button repeatedly and the Aliens will keep getting knocked back off the screen. I spammed this move in several stages and took barely any damage at all.

This takes a lot of the challenge out of the game. Most arcade-style beat ‘em up games place an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, so the plasma cannon probably should have just been a limited-use item that drops occasionally. If you were given a limited amount of ammo for the weapon, then that would make you use it more sparingly and cause you to focus more on the combat. If you charge your plasma cannon all the way by holding down the X button, you unleash lightning bolts from the sky that deal damage to all the enemies on the screen at once. This attack takes away a small portion of your health, so it’s a move that definitely shouldn’t be used too often.

When killed, enemies drop throwable weapons such as spears and discs as well as Alien skulls that give you extra points. You can pick up a powerup that grants the Predator temporary invisibility, which gives you a few free shots at the unsuspecting Aliens. One mildly annoying feature is that if you want to pick up an item such as health or camouflage, you won’t be able to pick them up if you’re already holding a weapon. If you want to pick up a separate item, you have to use up your weapon. This just seems wasteful. Why not just have a separate category for items and weapons?

The bosses are pretty easy once you figure out their main weaknesses. You can usually spam the plasma cannon or slide attack to defeat them. Most of the bosses are Alien hybrids of various animals, including an Alligator Alien, Snake Alien, Gorilla Alien, and a Bat Alien to name a few. These bosses are strangely reminiscent of the Kenner toys that were sold at the time. I always found it strange how this series of violent, R-rated films was marketed towards younger audiences.

Overall, the first Alien vs. Predator game is mediocre. However, it definitely wouldn’t be the last title in the series. Through some trial and error, the franchise would eventually find its footing in other gameplay genres such as first person shooters and real-time strategy games. While this first installment is a bit disappointing, every game series has to start somewhere.