Number 45: Alien Hominid, Behemoth 2004 (PS2)
Intro:
In fairly simple and voiceless animation, the Alien crashes to Earth thanks to the FBI. The menus are navigated as lists on a PDA, which is a little irritating if I want to fly through the menus. Everything is brightly colored and there is always something moving, maintaining the hectic pace and cartoony style of the whole game.
Getting Going:
There is no tutorial: this game wants you to dive right in and get into the nitty-gritty. The first level isn't easy, but the action is easy enough to follow and the simple controls make the difficulty more a matter of learning the game and not some overcomplicated controls. Players of games like Metal Slug will feel totally at home within seconds, while new players will only need a few more seconds to figure things out.
Fun:
Maniacal, hardcore, frantic action. It's really a lot of the same: run, jump, shoot, bomb, and a couple neat alien tricks added in to seperate the men from the boys. But this simplicity is compounded by wildly imaginitive graphic design and a constant flood of things to shoot and destroy, further improved by creative levels like the highway chase and moments of alternative gameplay like the UFO levels and the tractor-beam boss fight. Crazy weapons, hats, and the option to replace the blood with flowers make for more fun. The music and the bright design are fun to watch, too. And the score screen music, that organ grinder melody, makes me want to break out into the Ashlee Simpson dance and squeal with joy.
Visuals:
Bright, smooth, hand-drawn animation with great colors. Despite the slick style and the smooth motion, some people say the graphics still sucked, which begs the question: with all the polygons these machines can push, why do 2-D games still not look as sharp? The Dan Paladin style is creative and light-hearted, giving the gore a certain irony that can be really appreciated when the blood is replaced with flowers.
Intelligence:
Enemies aren't smart, for the most part. Each one has a clear script, and bosses all have a pattern that won't take more than 15 seconds to figure out. This is par for the course in 2-D shooters, though intelligence is not what makes this style of game popular or "good."
Immersion:
The frenzied blood (or flower) bath would be immersive if it was done with 8-bit graphics. The smooth visuals, fast action, and great music makes it ten times more fun to stare at, and any hardcore player will grin ear-to-ear through the whole experience. The load times are a bit long, though, and their lack of any sound makes them stick out like a sore thumb: some sort of simple loop, like a lone drummer tapping out something military, would have been enormously appreciated.
Cameras:
2-D games don't have cameras.
Controls:
Dead simple and classic. Metal Slug, SNES, and Genesis players are right at home with the simple run-jump-shoot controls, while players are also given special attacks though certain combination of buttons to raise their style score.
Ideas:
While the extras are exactly what I would expect after playing Dan Paladin/Tom Fulp games on Newgrounds.com, they are still imaginative (if largely useless). The classic hardcore shooter genre is dead as a door knob, but its great to play something so fresh feeling in a familiar genre. The highway chase level was really incredible, and the tractor beam boss was pretty fresh feeling, too. The spaceship levels were frustrating with only one player, though, and the bright style is really overshadowed by Katamari Damacy. The release date was foolish, too, so near to Halo 2 without an expensive advertisement campaign.
Memory:
This game will always have a warm, pillowed place in my heart as the little engine that could and did. The gameplay was great, the style was a treat for the eyes and ears, but all I wanted at the end was more levels and more enemies on the screen at once (the limit was clearly 4 enemies, since I never saw more). A great treat that every old-schooler or hardcore gamer needs to try once in their lifetime.
In fairly simple and voiceless animation, the Alien crashes to Earth thanks to the FBI. The menus are navigated as lists on a PDA, which is a little irritating if I want to fly through the menus. Everything is brightly colored and there is always something moving, maintaining the hectic pace and cartoony style of the whole game.
Getting Going:
There is no tutorial: this game wants you to dive right in and get into the nitty-gritty. The first level isn't easy, but the action is easy enough to follow and the simple controls make the difficulty more a matter of learning the game and not some overcomplicated controls. Players of games like Metal Slug will feel totally at home within seconds, while new players will only need a few more seconds to figure things out.
Fun:
Maniacal, hardcore, frantic action. It's really a lot of the same: run, jump, shoot, bomb, and a couple neat alien tricks added in to seperate the men from the boys. But this simplicity is compounded by wildly imaginitive graphic design and a constant flood of things to shoot and destroy, further improved by creative levels like the highway chase and moments of alternative gameplay like the UFO levels and the tractor-beam boss fight. Crazy weapons, hats, and the option to replace the blood with flowers make for more fun. The music and the bright design are fun to watch, too. And the score screen music, that organ grinder melody, makes me want to break out into the Ashlee Simpson dance and squeal with joy.
Visuals:
Bright, smooth, hand-drawn animation with great colors. Despite the slick style and the smooth motion, some people say the graphics still sucked, which begs the question: with all the polygons these machines can push, why do 2-D games still not look as sharp? The Dan Paladin style is creative and light-hearted, giving the gore a certain irony that can be really appreciated when the blood is replaced with flowers.
Intelligence:
Enemies aren't smart, for the most part. Each one has a clear script, and bosses all have a pattern that won't take more than 15 seconds to figure out. This is par for the course in 2-D shooters, though intelligence is not what makes this style of game popular or "good."
Immersion:
The frenzied blood (or flower) bath would be immersive if it was done with 8-bit graphics. The smooth visuals, fast action, and great music makes it ten times more fun to stare at, and any hardcore player will grin ear-to-ear through the whole experience. The load times are a bit long, though, and their lack of any sound makes them stick out like a sore thumb: some sort of simple loop, like a lone drummer tapping out something military, would have been enormously appreciated.
Cameras:
2-D games don't have cameras.
Controls:
Dead simple and classic. Metal Slug, SNES, and Genesis players are right at home with the simple run-jump-shoot controls, while players are also given special attacks though certain combination of buttons to raise their style score.
Ideas:
While the extras are exactly what I would expect after playing Dan Paladin/Tom Fulp games on Newgrounds.com, they are still imaginative (if largely useless). The classic hardcore shooter genre is dead as a door knob, but its great to play something so fresh feeling in a familiar genre. The highway chase level was really incredible, and the tractor beam boss was pretty fresh feeling, too. The spaceship levels were frustrating with only one player, though, and the bright style is really overshadowed by Katamari Damacy. The release date was foolish, too, so near to Halo 2 without an expensive advertisement campaign.
Memory:
This game will always have a warm, pillowed place in my heart as the little engine that could and did. The gameplay was great, the style was a treat for the eyes and ears, but all I wanted at the end was more levels and more enemies on the screen at once (the limit was clearly 4 enemies, since I never saw more). A great treat that every old-schooler or hardcore gamer needs to try once in their lifetime.