Alien vs. Predator

"An iconic beat 'em up premise heavily weighed down by tedious combat."

When I first saw the low scores of the reviews for this title, I initially guessed the judges weren't being fair. Often times people assumed this was a shoddy port of the Capcom arcade beat 'em up masterpiece. The two titles are entirely unrelated, and someone else had to have known that. To make sure this wasn't the reasoning behind the critics, I popped Alien vs. Predator into my SNES for the first time in about 5 years. My earlier assumptions were invalid, as this title is clearly deserving of such harsh treatment.

Graphics 7/10

Probably the best thing Alien vs. Predator had going for it was its graphics, and even those weren't top notch. While the predator itself was rendered pretty good, the aliens were much more scabby looking than any movie version and lost their original H. R. Giger ordained sexual imagery. The background environments were average, with the only one having any screen presence being the level with cocooned humans.

Sound 6/10

Aside from the music accompanying some of the cut scenes, everything seemed out of place for the setting. Most of the levels had too upbeat of a theme going on, despite being desolate cities or tunnels filled with victimized colonists. While this is all forgivable, the sound effects themselves were very limited. I recall hearing none of the trademark "click clack" Predator noises, and the Aliens seem to have been only given maybe two different squeals. The combat sound was pretty average, with bleeps for the laser weaponry and thuds for the pounding of fists.

Control 9/10

Perhaps the graphics weren't quite as good as the controls, which did just about everything perfectly. Too bad you're require to plod through the boring and uninspired battles with the very same excellent controls

Game-play 4/10

The main let down for this title lies in the execution of fighting and the cheap bosses. There weren't enough Alien types to keep my interest, and some segments threw about 20 different enemies at you before you were finally able to scroll a little further into the level. The Aliens had too much health, simply prolonging the boring smacking and sliding tactics I employed. Of the three power-up items: the razor disc was near worthless, and the stealth camouflage often confused me more than it the artificial intelligence. That left only the spear as a useful weapon, and probably the only fun way to dispose of the numerous redundant foes. Your special attack reminded me much of Golden Axe, with lightning bolts or possibly plasma streams raining down on the screen. The bosses were even worse than the cannon fodder, believe it or not. They were often so fast and employing such omnipotent methods of attack you became forced to spam certain attack over and over. I remember sliding back and forth against the first level boss for about two straight minutes watching the slivers of damage finally add up.

Overall 4/10

As much as I hate to hand down a score this low to a beat 'em up featuring two of my favorite creatures, it is required to remain honest. If playing this doesn't put you into a half-asleep state within 15 minutes, you're probably just waiting for the download fof Capcom's superior arcade version to finish.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/07