Digging into some more Sega arcade classics
The aliens are coming!
It's time for another Kim Justice video post! And today we're continuing with a fairly recent theme -- that of Sega Arcade classics. We had Golden Axe a couple of weeks ago, and now the fun continues with two more games linked by the word "Alien" in their title -- Alien Syndrome, and Alien Storm. You can probably expect a third video featuring E-SWAT, Thunder Blade and a couple of others I'd like to mention in the coming weeks, but for now here's the video from today:
Both of these games are pretty damn different from each other, in spite of the alien connection. Alien Syndrome, for example, is a different sort of unique game -- a top-down shooter that legitimately has something quite unsettling about it. Is it the repetitive synth ambience? The blood curdling screams? The horrific H.R. Giger-style monsters? Whatever there is, there's something about Alien Syndrome that you don't usually get from an Arcade game -- while its inspiration is obvious, it's probably the best unofficial Aliens game out there, and it manages to grab some of that oppressive atmosphere. Alien Storm, on the other hand, is a glorious romp by Team Shinobi that certainly features grotesque creations, but is more like a B-Movie than an attempt at horror. It's quite a lot like Golden Axe with added on shooting galleries, but a ton of fun.
Neither of these are amongst Sega's most famous works, but they're still memorable to many whether played in the arcade or in the home -- and I made an effort as usual to get every home version in. There's the obvious ones of course -- Alien Storm's rock solid Mega Drive port, or Alien Syndrome's rather intriguing NES effort, but there were also a few hidden gems thrown in, such as Alien Syndrome on the Game Gear feeling almost like a sequel to the original and being a truly excellent version of the game, or Alien Storm's high-quality 8-bit ports to both the Master System and the Commodore 64 (the latter is U.S. Gold's work, making it doubly surprising). Chances are you've probably played both of these games in one form or another, so naturally I encourage you to give this video a look and bask in the xenomorphic nostalgia. Hopefully you enjoy it!
