I'm suprised no one has devoted a thread to this game yet.
Alien 3: The Gun was released in 1993 by Sega and operated on it's System 32 hardware. This is great to me because I happen to LOVE System 32 games like Arabian Fight, Golden Axe, and Spider-Man. Those were side-scrolling beat em' ups however and this is an on-rails light gun shooter thats graphic style more closely resembles Outrun and Space Harrier than anything. This is because Sys32 games made good use of sprite scaling and line scrolling to create a psuedo 3d 'environment' and add a dynamic visual style to the gameplay. To explain for younger readers who may have never gotten to play these games, the hardware could take a sprite and constantly zoom into it until it was the size of the screen, creating a super pixelly effect that alot of people laugh at but I cherish. Basically, if you ever made a diorama out of some construction paper and a shoebox for school you've got an idea of what the devs had going on here.
Unfortunately I never got to play the actual arcade game but recently got it running in MameUI64 and since this was a light gun game, was relegated to turn on mouse support. Doesn't ruin the game, but I'm certain that to be in an actual arcade holding onto the rumbling replica pulse rifles would have made for a more complete experience. Not to mention having my real money on the line.
Anyway, the game itself plays out sort of like what you would have rather seen in the movie with two Colonial Marines charging around Fiorina 'Fury' 161 blasting hordes of Xenos. It's like the devs saw the movie and were like, "What the f**k is this?!? They kill Hicks? Ripley has no hair! Where are space marines and esplosions??? Ching chang!" then set out to flip the bird to 20th Century Fox complete with a massive horde of Xenos infesting the entire planet and a 'Boss' alien calling the shots. You can almost think about it as a sequel to the actual movie, if the sequel you wanted has super-facehuggers, Johnny-5, and horny young Xenos ready to take it all.
Ready and willing.
You can actually tell that the guys at Sega did care alittle when they were piecing the game together. I've always said there's really nothing like a good attract mode to make me wanna spend my quarters and thank God I'm a filthy, dirty pirate or I would have had to. We are treated to some rather cool looking Weyland-Yutani diagnostic and diagram screens which are kind of an interesting read if you can get a close look.
Basically they are just talking about the Alien lifecycle and defense mechanisms in really bad Engrish.
Also dog shlongs which you can clearly see they labeled 'Dog Burster'. Juvenile.
"This story begins with an SOS that was sent out from a spaceship after one dreadful battle."
You begin the game blazing your way through the corridors of the Sulaco which to be honest look way more like the halls of Hadley's Hope. Thanks, Sega
. It's filled with Xenos and sentry turrets and it's here that you get an introduction to the way that the game works - just like every other shooter from 1993. If you hold the trigger down for too long your gun will 'overheat' and slow down to uselessness but all you have to do is quick tap the trigger to speed it back up. Kinda' a nuisance so for the purpose of taking screenshots I cheated. Also, bombs.
The boss of the level is the 'Super Face-Hugger' which I honestly thought was pretty cool until...
I realized that if you let it sit on your face for too long it'll actually jizz. It doesn't jump off after this, it just sits there and keeps jizzing on you until you fire again. That shouldn't be a problem in the real game because you won't be invincible like me. It's actually a pretty cool battle because the Sulaco starts spitting fire through the hallways once it's healthbar gets kinda low.
After this the story crashlands your marines on Fury 161 and sets you loose in a really cool, dreary outdoors environment (something we didn't see enough of in the movie).
The majestic dogburster xeno strides through the barren terrain of Fury searching for it's mate - your face.
Storyline wise I guess Johnny 5 is supposed to be guarding the perimeter of the prison colony with shoot to kill orders on anyone who tries to escape. f**k Asimov, right?
1993 called and it want's it's generic tank battle ba... oh, right.
Does it make sense that a dogburster would have a butthole? Is that part of the whole taking traits from it's host thing? Or is it because the game was programmed by Japanese dudes?
There are some cool little moments in the game like this. Your viewpoint turns to see a massive stampede of Xenos heading your way, turns back again quickly and you hear a bad sound sample screech, "Get out of here!". It's just a fun little touch they didn't have to add but did.
There's also this neat section. You begin to notice it's getting dark outside and at the last vestige of light your view switches to infrared mode. From that point on, it's carnage.
It was the only job digital Steven Tyler could get after Revolution-X.
If you go by the EU, it's feasible to see desperate Xenos attempting to breed in new ways. However, a bloated and frozen dead bull carcass is really pushing my suspension of disbelief. Still, I really like that they included the slaughterhouse as a level even though I can't recall if it was actually in the film. I know it shows up in the SNES and Genesis games as well.
Sometimes the symmetry in game can be really beautiful in motion even though I know it was probably done to save programming time.
Seriously are you guys f**king mopping??? I'm not saving you.
That would make the third game, from the third developer, that decided to include the blue human 'Infectoid' enemy type though it was never seen in any of the other Aliens material. I suppose the closest thing to this in EU canon would be the 'Bug Men' from Dark Horse's lame ole' Colonial Marines. As a side note I noticed on one occasion one of these dudes threw a f**kin' hatchet at me. What a dick right? Do they even have trees on Fury 161?
Rad.
That's the 'Boss Alien' up there, based off the main Dog Burster seen in the film. You'll fight him in a few seperate sections. The objective in the second section is too continuously fire on him until you've pushed him into the boiling lead. In the 3rd, as in the movie, he'll emerge from the lead lookin' like he about to raise a dickens'. Just shoot the jiggy above his head a bunch and it'll pour soothing H2O on him, causing movie physics to take over and explode his head. Actually in the game his upper half just kinda dissolves and leaves his legs standing there.
Near the end you are attacked by a pack of blue combat synthetics. Or at least I guess they are synths cause they explode in a white, gooey mess just like Bishop. I always thought he would make a great Got Milk ad. Just show Bishop's severed, lifeless upper half laying in a trash pile all oozing and stuff.
I suppose these are supposed to be baby Queens. Aww, pink.
This is sort of like the equivalent of when Lance Henriksen shows up at the end of the movie, but with an injection of firepower and dance. The guy has a pulse rifle/flamethrower combination like Ripley and decides to use it on you when your marines tell him they don't have his 'samples'. If he had bothered to look my guy got plenty of samples on his face when fighting the Super Face-Hugger back aboard the Sulaco.
After that a bunch of bros pop out and gun us down, keeping in line with the whole 'dying at the end' thing from the movie.
All in all, I think Alien 3: The Gun is a pretty great shooter given the time period it was released. Without cheating, the game was obviously designed to suck up quarters. You WILL die playing this game and you'll die alot but to me it would be worth it just for the Alien experience. The levels in the game have a strange quality about them that makes a playthrough feel almost cathartic. It's especially refreshing to me after playing so many modern shooters to return to a style of gaming familiar from my childhood.
On a final note, something I haven't touched on yet is the music which is excellent. It doesn't sound at all like anything from the Alien films and is actually much more reminiscent of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer but still, it's what helps drive the mood of game. If I ever see an actual A3:TG arcade machine I will be sure to drop a few quarters in
