Alien

"Oh No, Genetic experiments have turned Pac-man into a man-eating monster!"

When I was 6 1/2 I remember a friend of mine having this game. I can remember a bunch of us sitting in his bedroom watching him play it and all the while I was thinking wow, Pac-man is having babies and they must have eaten all the ghosts so they've turned to cannibalism for survival! Okay, I was young and hadn't seen the movie yet. Not that anyone could make a logical connection between this game and that movie. Besides, I barely even knew what cannibalism was. I think I first heard the word in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Last year I found this game in a store and decided to buy it for old times sake. These were my observations:

Story/Concept 3: Any connection between this game and the movie is purely coincidental. Sigourney Weaver's Lt. Ripley is absent here. The inside of the spaceship is absent as well. There are no facehuggers laying eggs in people that form alien monsters that burst forth from their hosts and go and eat people.
You are a guy, running around a maze, picking up or stomping on eggs. I'm not sure which because the sound effects seem to point to stomping on them but there are no remnants left afterward. There are crazed Pac-men with feet running around trying to vaporize you. You are armed with a flamethrower to ward them off which is strangely enough taken from the movie. You can use a transporter to try to escape from them by transporting yourself from one side of the screen to the other but sometimes they will do the same and continue the pursuit. A shining light will appear in three different spots and if you eat one you can eat the Pac-men for the short time it effects you. There are also prizes near the middle of the screen that seem to be weapons and sometimes ships that have no real reason to be there except to give you more points if you collect them. Only the flamethrowers are of any importance because you'll have another one to use when yours runs out.
If you manage to destroy all the eggs then you'll see a second screen with you starting at the bottom and the crazed Pac-men running back and forth. You have to navigate through their ranks like in Frogger to get a prize on the other side; again a ship or weapon to collect for more points. Whether you get this prize or die doesn't really matter because you'll proceed to the next maze.

Graphics 5: The so-called aliens look like large Pac-men with strange ridges on their backs and they have feet. Their movements are frenzied and next to the generic running character you play look better than you'd expect. The maze looks like any other maze. The dots that are supposed to be eggs could be anything. The prizes you are supposed to collect are almost indistinguishable. One of them looks like a flamethrower and another kind of looks like a tiny tie fighter.
The transporter effect is the nicest thing to see as you or an alien dematerialize, ala Star Trek, on one side and rematerialize on the other.
One other thing that puzzles me is why when the aliens catch you you glow and disappear but when you catch them they look like they're being eaten up? Shouldn't it have been the other way around?

Music/Audio 4: A crunching sound best describes what you hear when you pass over an egg. A siren sounds as you run through the maze which I guess is supposed to remind you of the self-destruct alarm you hear at the end of the move; but of course no ship self-destructs in this game. In any case, the effect sounds more like a low police siren. A loud siren goes off when you first get one of the lights that allow you to kill the aliens but once you kill one a louder version of the alarm you hear throughout the game sounds until you lose the power; then you hear the loud siren again briefly. You also hear a loud noise if you grab one of the prizes. A little noise is heard if an alien kills you.
Just like the graphics, the best sound effect is the transporter's.

Gameplay 6: I was never a big fan of Pac-man; finding it only mildly amusing. This game seems like an upgraded version of that game and can be surprisingly fun. Having these big-mouthed creatures chasing you around as you try and ward them off with your flamethrower long enough to grab one of the lights so you can turn the tables on them is enjoyable. The transporter is a nice touch.
The bonus screen breaks the monotony of running around the mazes as you try and navigate a way through the alien hordes to get a prize.

Replay Value 5: Being chased by the aliens can be addictive though don't ask me why. I really can't explain it except to say that I played this game a lot for about 3 weeks after I got it and then stopped playing it until I went to write this review.

In the end this game is for anyone who might have liked Pac-man the arcade game but hated the home version. This one is better. Fans of the movie should look elsewhere. You'll be severely disappointed by this game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/02, Updated 05/20/02