Alien 3 - SNES
In an era full of high octane arcade thrills & spills, and deep, substance-full cRPGs, we get Alien 3 - a game WAY ahead of it's time in that it has neither the excitement of the popamole games, nor the depth of the old era either.
See it plays steady enough, and the 8 way directional shooting is cool, but the actual game itself is as dull as shagging an unsalted bag of chips. Most of the time is spent walking, the aliens are more of an annoyance than a threat, and even then it's usually easier just to jump over them than shoot them (esp as it's a game with respawns & ammo). By the time you've done a handful of missions you've done them all, and once the novelty of the Alien vibe has worn off there's little else to enjoy.
Not an unplayable game by any means, but it grows tedious quickly, and is soon forgotten.
:2/5:
Alien 3 - Megadrive
After playing the SNES version I had an Alien itch to scratch, so jumped back to the Megadrive and played that one.
Meh. S'Ok. Better than the SNES one for sure. Get's a real nice balance of tension going between the timer, the ammo, the alien placements & level layouts. Killing the aliens feel very satisfying, pulse rifle in particular, they have that spot on. Way more colourful & interesting vibe than the Snes one too.
Where it slips up is having the aliens often charge at you from out the screen, so - depending on where you are placed - they're often unavoidable. Again, depending on where you're placed, it can also be quite awkward to shoot them too.
Success more or less boils down to trial & error, & memorizing where everything is. No bad thing in itself, but it rarely deviates from that, and soon gets a bit tedious. Similarly to the SNES version, level after level of the same rigmarole doesn't help matters either.
Still, worth a go, especially for those into the franchize. Many a worse game Alien out there.
:3/5: