Alien vs. Predator

"Better than the movie, but that’s not saying much…"

Alien vs. Predator in the arcade is classic arcade beat ‘em up action. This game is not that game…

Story (5/20)
A group of Predators go to the planet Vega 4 to hunt some humans, but end up finding that a hive of Xenomorphs are on the rampage and opt to take them out instead. Yeah, this plot is pretty lame, but at least it has some lame cutscenes to go along with it. The plot of the Alien vs. Predator movie, however, was a lot lamer than this, comparatively making this game's plot better.

Gameplay (20/50)
This game plays and controls like most arcade beat ‘em games, so it is pretty standard in that category of gameplay. You do not seem to have any special moves beyond a few single button strokes. So you can jump, punch, fire a laser (which takes away health), or practice your dance moves for when the Predators get back to the club scene on their home world (of course jumping's only use probably falls into this category as well). Some enemies require you to slide into them to kill them, while others need to be punched (in more ways than one). That's about as deep as combat gets.

Speaking of enemies, there are only five types of enemies in this game, meaning you'll see everything but the bosses by the time you get through the second stage. They fight in ways varying from the suicide charge to the acid spit. Actually, that's about the only two ways they like to fight. As for the bosses, they vary from stronger forms of the above enemies (replete with the two moves mentioned above) to a few enjoyable bosses (the Winged Queen at the Spaceport is entertaining, for example).

Level design is also very poor, although not too far from the norm for this type of game. Every level consists of moving in a single direction (generally from left to right, but there are a few “elevator” levels) until the screen stops scrolling. At this point a number of Xenomorph Warriors and Stalkers will leap in and try to attack you. Defeating them will then let you move to the next screen, repeating the process. While many arcade beat ‘em ups are like this, most mix things up a little better than this. Final Fight, for example, offered varying backgrounds and interludes in elevator-style action within a single level.

Graphics (5/20)
Yeah, uh, this game looked pretty bad back in the day. By 1993 when this came out, you already had games like Mega Man X, whose graphical quality far outshines this game. Alien vs. Predator's backgrounds, enemies, and one the Predators look dark and grainy, while the other Predator looks like he came out of the 1970s and still insists on wearing psychedelic colors. I guess when he's not using his cloaking device he wants to be the hippest cat in the game or something.

This game was published by Activision, who had published such graphical masterpieces like Sword Master, The Real Ghostbusters, and Mondu's Fight Palace by this time. Never heard of those games before? Me neither…

Replayability (0/10)
What? Are you kidding me? You shouldn't even play this game once, let alone a second time. Avoid it like you'd avoid a movie starring Kevin Costner.

Overall (30/100)
Don't play this game, seriously. It isn't so much that there is anything abhorrent that makes this a bad game, it is simply so mediocre that there is nothing to be salvaged from it that makes it stand out. Activision seems to have gone to great pains to make sure not to fall into any of the common mistakes of action games that they removed any source of originality and desirable aspects of an arcade beat ‘em up that makes a game like Turtles in Time or Golden Axe stand out. Instead we have a constant flow of uninspired enemies you must battle with an uninspired character.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/06