Alien 3

"A beautiful game to look at and listen to, but periodically frustrating to control, so definitely NOT without its faults."

FOREWORD

Whilst I have never been a HUGE fan of the Alien series (I thought Aliens was GREAT, but the rest were all pretty much on par), I did think that Alien 3 was a very enjoyable game once it was ported across to the Megadrive/Genesis, and so I was more than happy to nip out and pick up a copy of the Super NES' offering, to see what the lo-down on that little baby was ...

... what did I make of it ?? Read on ...

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

Alien 3 is a platform title which puts you in control of Ellen Ripley - heroine of the Alien movie series, in the Fiorina "Fury" 161 all-male prison colony.

Ripley has crash-landed on the planet as a result of there having been a fire aboard the space ship she was travelling on - the Sulaco), and is the sole survivor of that crash.

Your objective is pretty much the same as Ripley's objectives always are - find and destroy aliens, whilst finding and saving (if at all possible) captured humans BEFORE they are impregnated by the Aliens.

GRAPHICS - 8/10

Graphically, this is a mighty fine piece of work. The sprites are varied and the Ripley sprite is a very decent size, and BEAUTIFULLY animated throughout. There are a number of variations to the standard aliens (which are generally colour-coded so that you can tell ahead of time which type of alien you are squaring up against), and pretty much every area of the game, from the levels themselves during play to the blueprints screens you can flick through to plot your route before getting stuck into the thick of things, has been done with a graphical flourish that makes the game VERY pleasing to the eye.

Ripley can attack in 8 different directions and each of the angles of attack has been carefully considered so as to make it look realistic (hanging from ladders, shooting diagonally up at the ceiling and so on), and there are a number of nice animations included for specific situations as well, such as if you leave Ripley hanging from bars, she will swing ever-so-gently from them, rather than just hanging still (which is appreciably more realistic than in other games).

Weapons fire has been carefully dealt with, and effects like that used on the Flamethrower are some of the best I have seen on a Super NES title to date (and I am writing this review YEARS after the game was released, so that's saying something !!) ;)

There is only ONE thing I don't like about the game graphically, and that is the animations used on Ripley when she jumps (as it looks like she's slo-mo jumping off a trampoline), but apart from that very minor gripe, this is a very well done game graphically.

SOUND - 8/10

As with the graphics, the sounds have been attended to with precision, consideration and thought. There are a plethora of different sound-effects during play (owing not in the least to the multitude of weapons you have at your disposal), and the dying screams and squeals of aliens as they explode and bleed their acid blood all over the place will have you smiling wryly during play.

The music is dark and foreboding but well done throughout, keeping the tempo of play going in the quieter times, with plenty of sharp squeaks and sliding string work to make you stop and go "what was that ?" whilst playing.

CONTROLS - 6/10

The developers have tried to make the Ripley character very varied in the ways in which she can choose to attack and, up to a point, they have done a very good job in so doing.

They didn't just want to have her able to shoot in 8 different directions - they wanted you as a player to be able to rationally think things through before so doing, and so you can take your time at certain locations (such as when you are clinging onto ladders) and make your shots count (which, owing to the number of aliens in the game, is a GOOD thing).

Unfortunately they have come a little bit unstuck in three areas, being jumping, crouching, and clipping.

When Ripley jumps, she jumps slow (so slow she almost appears to float to her destination) and very, very high. If you just leave her standing and press the jump button, she jumps forward a bit which is irritating - ordinarily jump just means jump - it doesn't mean jump forward unless you're PRESSING forward.

Given her disproportionate jumping range and speed, this can negatively impact upon the speed of play and the levels of consideration you have to give to her position before she throws herself at the next ledge. Many's the time I have thought "I can't SEE the next ledge, but I'm sure she'll reach it", only to have her fall miles it seems, and land on her feet, for me to then have to go back and do it all again (and that's NOT cool).

Secondly, crouching. The problem I have with crouching is that there is a dedicated animation specifically for it, which takes a split second to play through, and that can really hamper your speedy moving around in tight spots, ESPECIALLY when there are hordes of aliens closing in on you (and believe me, there will be).

For example, you might want to crouch and shoot two Face Huggers before jumping over a third, and then doing a running jump towards a ladder behind them to go up to the next area. Unless you're very good with your timing, you can almost FORGET that - odds are when you're trying to crouch you'll confuse Ripley into thinking you want her to aim diagonally down and right, and then miss the first two Face Huggers before jumping straight into the path of the third ... so irritation when crouching and jumping can be on the high side.

The final area in which the controls let themselves down a bit is when you consider clipping - particularly ceiling clipping. Ripley can actually jump through certain ceilings and shoot the enemies on the floor above her, which is good in terms of exploiting it to your advantage, but bad in terms of clipping consideration.

So whilst the controls are ambitious, and GENERALLY perform well, there are a number of specific scenarios in which I think it is safe to say you will find them rather restrictive, if not downright annoying.

PLOT - 6/10

I was never that big a fan of the plot to Alien 3 personally, and this game (naturally - it is the movie-to-home port for the Super NES after all), takes it on completely. Basically at the end of Aliens, Ripley escapes with Newt, Hicks, Bishop and (unbeknownst to all of them) an alien Face Hugger. During their cryogenic sleep, the Face Hugger accidentally activates the emergency protocols of the ship, causing it to crash into Fiorina "Fury" 161 - an all-male prison colony on an isolationist planet.

Newt, Hicks and Bishop are all snuffed out with the crash landing, and Ripley comes to and is attended to by the doctor of the facility. Soon, though, inmates start dying in an all-too-familiar manner, and Ripley finds herself doing battle with her old nemesis - the Alien.

The main difference between this title and the movie is that whereas in the movie there is only one confirmed PROPER alien, in this game there are MILLIONS of the little sh!ts, and that can make your life CONSIDERABLY harder ;)

GAMEPLAY - 7/10

Were it not for the three irksome control issues I have spouted off about earlier, I would be inclined to give this an 8 - the game is well-planned, and you have the luxury of being able to scan blueprints of key areas before heading into them so as to avoid wasting potentially HOURS of game-time running around looking for things that just aren't there, or are but aren't accessible from your present location.

Add to that the fun-factor of flaming, rocketing or shooting bazillions of aliens and you have the recipe for a great big fun alien-romp ... until you start to analyse the finer points of the control method, whereupon it all comes ... not CRASHING down, but certainly down a peg of two, to somewhere in-between enjoyable and good fun.

It is, however, unlikely to be one of your most-frequently played titles.

Whilst there are attempts at variety in the levels and level design, there are periods of play when you feel you're doing nothing that you've not already done dozens of times before, so there is creeping boredom in there periodically, and that, again, is not a good thing =./

REPLAY VALUE - 5/10

Given the size of the game (Fiorina "Fury" 161 is a BIG@SS place) there is quite a bit to explore - however, being a penal colony you wouldn't expect it to be rolling hills and beautiful verdant meadows, so there is repetition in the level backdrops which can lead to a sense of ennui during play.

When you factor in the contradiction between the fantastically well-done graphics and animations which DO work, and the three control issues which DON'T work so well, you have a game which has the potential to polarise in terms of its enjoyment between being very good and very irritating. Fortunately it sits around the middle, so the replay value of this game, short- mid- and longer-term is consistently average in my book.

VALUE FOR MONEY - 6/10

It's going to be hard for you to get your hands on a copy of this title these days, owing to its age, and the lack of availability of Super Nintendo games and consoles out there at the present time (even less of which are in a working condition).

Therefore I would say that if you're a fan of the Aliens series of movies, then odds are you will enjoy playing the game, but if you're just looking for a decent example of a Super NES platform title, there are plenty of better ones than this out there.

OVERALL - 6/10 (This is NOT an average)

It is a pity that a game which has got such beautiful graphics and well-placed sounds doesn't score higher to me, but when all is said and done, Alien 3 both succeeds and fails at the same time.

It's not the best platformer, nor the best title in the Aliens series available for console purchase (in my book Alien 3 for the Megadrive/Genesis is superior to this game) - however it's not a BAD game, and there are elements of it which are very enjoyable (graphics and sound mostly).

MAIN GOOD POINTS

* Graphically well done throughout
* Animations on Ripley are beautiful and well thought-out
* Sounds are all good

MAIN BAD POINTS

* Potentially extreme levels of irritation during play owing to control issues
* Repetition in level design and mission objectives

SO SHOULD YOU GET IT ?

As I said in my summary, if you love the Aliens movies, then yes - IF you can get a cheap copy of it, I would say go for it ... but that's the ONLY group of people I would recommend go out and get it. For those of you that are looking for an enjoyable game to sink hours of your time into, or a good example of a platformer for the Super NES, there ARE plenty of better titles out there. Sorry.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/07

Game Release: Alien 3 (EU, 10/28/93)