For children of the 80s and 90s, there was a sort of "holy trinity" of sci-fi action movie franchises: Terminator, Predator, and Alien. Now, while I refer to it as the Alien franchise, let's be honest for us kids back then, it was ALL about "Aliens", the 1986 sequel to the the 1979 horror sci-fi original. While the original film was all about building tension in the form of the lone titular alien methodically hunting down and killing the crew of the Nostromo, until Ellen Ripley, the unlikely hero who was right the entire time and no one fucking listened to when a crew member had a fucking ALIEN attached to his face was let in and not quarantined for some reason despite her objections, jettisons the creature into space, the lone survivor, and completed her role as the "final girl" in a horror movie.
While Alien is still highly regarded as a classic in the genre, "Aliens" took it to another level, with James Cameron at the helm. Fuck tension and subtlety, we're gonna have a bunch of bad ass, giant fucking machine gun wielding space marines blow shit up, with hundreds of aliens used as fodder. While as an adult I can appreciate the first movie, as a kid, it's sequel was the greatest thing I'd ever seen in my life. Let's rewind to the late 80s. It's late at night, and my parents have HBO. I, 7 or 8 year old Mike, can't sleep. So, what's a young child with no supervision at that moment and access to whatever HBO shows at like, 1 AM to do? I'm flipping HBO on, and maybe getting to see a tit. On that fateful night, there were no tits, but the single most violent, terrifying, "what the fuck?" movie I had ever encountered in my life: "Aliens". I was glued to the sofa, as Ellen Ripley and Co tore through an alien colony on the planet LV-426, being picked off over time, culminating with an epic battle with the alien queen. I wasn't quite sure what I had seen, especially when Bishop the android got ripped in half and was still alive, but I knew it was bad ass. Above all else, I knew I had playground currency: I could tell other kids at school about this insane movie I saw, and they can live vicariously through me.
Fast forward a few years, and I was in 5th grade at a new school. I had made friends with a kid in class, Marvin Dinoso and he also shared a love for movies like "Aliens", so we obsessed over them. No idea why EVERYONE'S parents just let them watch so many violent, R rated movies, but it was a different time I suppose. We walked to Star Market Liquor, at the end of the street or school was on, and popped in to grab some snacks, maybe drop a few quarters into the arcade cabinets they had there, and then hang out at his place. That's where we saw it: they had gotten a new game in, and it was "ALIENS"! I about lost my mind when I saw it, and the arcade game artwork of what was DEFINITELY not Sigourney Weaver.
Not that I was COMPLAINING about some random blonde with a huge rack, but man, they really didn't even try to convince you it was the same character.
Regardless, we popped our quarters in and went to town with legendary characters Ellen Ripley, and Green Guy.
We rationalized that's probably supposed to be Hicks, but it was a stretch. That being said, the game was awesome! It had everything you wanted from the movie: space marines, machine guns, face huggers, grown Xenomorphs, that one alien with 4 legs that surrounded itself with orbs.
Wait. what the fuck?
Ok, so Konami took some creative licenses with the game. Those things happened at the time. Realizing that an action arcade game would probably get repetitive if all you did was kill the same aliens over and over, they designed a whole slew of crazy ass aliens to blow away.
The game itself was pretty basic: two buttons, that's it. Button 1 was a high attack, button 2 was a crouching one, and also activated bombs that you picked up, in a weird design flaw. No jumping, you just walk forward, and shoot. It did break things up with some 3rd person vehicle stages, which helped. While simple in design, it was also crushingly difficult, it was after all, a 1990 arcade game. It's goal is to eat as many of your quarters as possible, but without frustrating you so bad early on you give up and never play again. By having cool new enemy designs for bosses, it made you want to carry on and see what came next.
Graphics and sound were top notch for the time, and really helped make it such a blast to play. Sadly, it never received any home ports so your only options to play it nowadays is hope that a local barcade has one, or, emulation. I feel like despite it being based on a beloved movie, and being made by a beloved developer, it's a bit of a hidden gem, thanks to it being an arcade only title. I personally have only encountered it in the wild a few times, so even at it's peak, it wasn't a staple of every arcade. Luckily, I came across it at the perfect time and place, and it's short time at Star Market made a lasting impression, as for the rest of the time it was there, me and Marvin pretty much hit it up and played it every day, until one day it was gone. Replaced by a Neo-Geo cabinet. We mourned its loss for a moment, and then plunked a couple of quarters in and played "King of the Monsters". Thank you for reading, and until next time:
Happy gaming.
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