Alien Hominid

"If I actually used all 150 available characters this title would be obnoxiously long"

The first thing that one has to know before tackling Alien Hominid is it's story. Alien Hominid began it's life as a flash game on newgrounds (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/59593). From there the creators founded The Behemoth, an independent, self funded game developer. "The Behemoth is an independent console game developer that specializes in making collectible games that are fun to play and beautiful to look at". This is exactly what has been done with Alien Hominid.

Beautiful to look at?
The first thing that you notice when you boot this game up and start playing is that it is beautiful to look at. The game is 100% hand drawn, giving it an amazing cartoon style. The animations are nice and smooth, the backgrounds are interesting, and the attention to detail in every environment makes the game feel really special. When the poop hits the fan the frame rate can take a slight dip, but never anything that impedes to terribly on the play of the game.

Fun to play?
The game definitely lives up to the company's "fun to play" standard. Anyone who fell in love with games like Contra, or Metal Slug are sure to feel nostalgia. For those who may be newer, or are looking for a nice little casual game may want to look elsewhere for their fix as this game is hard. Playing through a level without dying is a big accomplishment. Beating a level without dying a 3 or 4 times is actually an accomplishment. If you can figure out what you're doing this difficulty does add more to the game than it detracts, giving you a real sense of accomplishment when you beat a boss and move on to the next level.

Justifiable?
The game is fairly short, taking around 4 hours to play through depending on what difficulty you play, and your skill level. If you've got a friend that's really into these sort of games, then you've got some replay in there with co-op, and some mini-games which are worth a look tack on a little more play time. Ultimately though the game may not feel like it's worth the $20 dollars you'd be dropping on it. If you have the option the game was also recently released on Xbox Live Arcade for $10, which the game is most definitely worth.

When it all comes together this game definitely fulfills the company's goal of fun to play and beautiful to look at, making this a great under the radar title. While the game may be short, the fun packed into the limited hours of play is ultimately substantial enough to merit a purchase for any fan of old school shoot em' ups.

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/07