Alien 3

"I love the sound of screaming victims with Aliens bursting out of their chests..."

Alien 3 took on a different role in the SNES version in which you had to complete difficult tasks like welding pipes together, or turning on consoles that really had no purpose other than to activate lifts to help you to the next level. This time around, you spend most of your time searching out prisoners that have been captured and implanted with the Alien chest bursters, and try to make it to the end of the stage before the time runs out! The story itself is based on the movie, in which you're taking on the role of a stranded Ellen Ripley who is stuck on a prison planet with the homicidal Alien creatures but in a limited fashion to the degree of you have weapons this time around, where as the movie didn't, and you're rescuing prisoners from certain death instead of letting them become Alien feed like the movie did! Any way that you slice it, Alien 3 is a good action platformer with several improvements over the movie, but lacking in other aspects suck as diverse game play and precise control.

-Game Play 7/10-

You have one tired woman in a prison full of men, most of which seem to have been captured by the Aliens and prepped for incubation! You're working against the clock and you have plenty of fire power this time around in the form of Pulse Rifles, Flame Throwers and the ever popular grenades, which can be used to clear out any harmful Alien threat. Each stage gets a little hard to defeat, in which the prisoners are spread out a little further, and the time limit is a little smaller, as well as the Aliens start getting a little more daring and plenty aggressive! Power ups are found through the different stages, and can be used to replenish your weapon stock, or your health depending on how much damage you take in the process.

-Control 6/10-

This could use a little work, but overall, the control isn't that bad, it only takes practice! With the amount of jumping that you'll need to do as well as firing on whatever doesn't look friendly, you'll find that the control takes some getting used to, especially in places where a good timed jump is a must! Other than that, and the stiffness of the Genesis controller, action gamers shouldn't have too much of a problem learning what the control has to offer.

-Visuals 7/10-

While it's not as refined as the SNES version, it does offers some pretty solid visuals to look at. The stages are all well detailed, with enough dark mood lighting to keep the theme of the game, but some of the finer detail could use a little work! The enemies move with a bit of stiffness, and there isn't much with special effects either, save for the small explosions that you get from lobbing a grenade.

-Audio 7/10-

The music blends quietly into the background, so you'll find nothing that jumps right out at you. The sound effects are a generic fare of gunfire, explosions and the occasional hiss of a hidden Alien looking to make you lunch! All of this ends up blending together nicely, without too much blaring on any level or in any aspect.

-Overall 7/10-

Alien 3 isn't much of a visual game, but it does offer plenty of the traditional action plat form gaming that most fans will appreciate. While it does differ from the movie widely, Alien 3 has enough action and plenty of weapons to go around for either the die hard killer, or just a weekend warrior. However, with a slight control problem, some gamers will have a hard time sinking their teeth into this, and will probably look elsewhere for the control to go with their cup of action tea!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/01, Updated 10/09/01