Alien Storm: A Classic Arcade Game from Sega

Alien Storm is a fun beat’em up. Sega initially released the game in the arcades, and later ported it to the Genesis/Mega Drive. It is a hybrid of a beat’em up and a rail shooter. I’ll be looking at the Genesis version, since that is the game I’m most familiar with.

There are some similarities to other Sega beat’em ups, like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage. The arcade game was based on the same arcade board as Golden Axe. Those two games are very similar, especially on the beat’em up stages.

Alien Storm didn’t get the same treatment as Golden Axe. It was a one-and-done game, which is a shame. Having a beat’em up based on an alien invasion is a cool idea. I wish it had been turned into a series of rail shooters.

TLDR: A fun hybrid of a beat’em up and a rail shooter.

Narrative

There is a brief story for this game. It isn’t anything special and is what you should expect for an arcade game. I like it for what it is.

In the game, an alien race invades Earth. Apparently, the fate of humanity rests on a special forces team known as the “Alien Busters.” If you were expecting a big team, then you’ve obviously never played a video game before. The team only has three members.

When I went to the game’s manual, the story wasn’t all that different. The aliens aren’t named or anything like that. I do find it a little funny that the military is either unwilling or unable to fight the aliens. Here is a link to the game’s manual (Link).

Much like Golden Axe, there is a man, a woman, and a novelty character to choose from. I’ll get more into it in the next section. As far as stories go, this is perfectly fine for an arcade game like this. I’m not looking for anything crazy from the story, and it delivers as much as is needed.

Gameplay

The gameplay is fairly straightforward. Alien Storm is a three-character beat’em up. Between some of the beat’em up stages are first-person rail shooter segments. These are nice and help to give some variety to the gameplay.

There are three characters to choose from. Their names are different depending on which version of the game you’re playing. Here they are:

• Karen – She is absent in the Master System version and is also called Karla in other versions.
• Garth – He is named Gordon in some versions,
• Slammer – This is the robot character, and he is called Scooter in some versions of the game.

Each of these characters has a special attack. This is something that you’ll see in most beat’em ups. The other controls are attack and jump. There is also a jumping attack. Alien Storm has everything that you will see in other beat’em ups from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

There are a total of eight stages, which are called missions. There are first-person rail shooter stages included in each mission. These are fun diversions from the beat’em up action you’re going to be doing.

The rail shooter sections are fun. You can scroll left to right, and you just shoot everything on the screen. There are hidden power-ups in these sections, so shoot everything and you’ll be rewarded for it.

Like many of these arcade ports, you’re given a few continues. When you first start playing, they come in handy until you get better at the game. While I understand why there is a limit, it would be nice if the game had unlimited continues.

Overall, the gameplay is what you should expect from a beat’em up. This is a perfectly fine game, and I like the variety in the gameplay. While I was playing this game, I kept thinking that the rail shooter sections were more fun. If there was another game, I would want a light gun version, like Sega’s House of the Dead.

Visuals

Alien Storm has similar graphics to Golden Axe and Altered Beast. All three games used the same arcade hardware, which explains the visual similarities. What makes Alien Storm stand out are the rail shooter stages.

You can tell that this game used the same hardware as other Sega arcade games from the late 1980s. The graphics look basically the same, but with a science fiction theme. Each character looks good, the sprites are big, and the animations look good.

Much like other beat’em ups, there are quite a few palette swaps. It is an easy way to get new enemies into the game. You’ll see this with other beat’em ups, like Golden Axe or the TMNT games.

The rail shooter sections are in first person. There were quite a few arcade games that use this, and it works well on the home console as well. These sections look very good. With Alien Storm, you just shoot everything with what looks like a proton pack from the Ghostbusters movies.

I like the graphics in this game. The aliens look good. They aren’t too generic, and look creepy at times. The boss characters are big and well-detailed, which is nice. This is a good looking Genesis game from the early 1990s.

Reviews at the Time

Most reviews from the 1990s have this game in the 7/10 range. It fared better in some foreign language publications. You can see this on MobyGames list of reviews for the game. Some of these reviews have been lost, but a short blurb has been saved. I looked at three reviews for this.

MegaTech gave it a 78/100. Their reviews are quite short. They called it an “outstanding conversion of the coin-op,” but said that the game was “just too easy.”

Mega Play had four people review the game. Their scores were 7/10, 7/10, 5/10, and a 6/10. They called it “Golden Axe in the future,” and called it too short and too easy.

Sega Pro gave the game a 79/100. They called it a “Space Age Golden Axe,” and said that it was “great fun.” The reviewer also said it was way too easy.

The biggest knock against this game is the difficulty and length. Normally, developers would add something to beat’em ups to try and make them longer. It seems like that didn’t happen with Alien Storm. Most of these games were between 30 and 60 minutes long, depending on how good you were.

7.5/10. Alien Storm is a solid beat’em up with good controls and graphics. The rail shooter sections help the game stand out. At the end of the day, I would rather play Golden Axe or Streets of Rage.

Pros

• Good Controls
• Nice Graphics
• Variety in the Gameplay

Cons

• Short game
• Repetitive
• A little too easy

Conclusion

I discovered this game when I played one of Sega’s arcade collections. Then I completely forgot about it until I started collecting video games again in the mid-2010s. It wasn’t something I played until I started reading about Sega’s history.

Alien Storm is one of my favorite beat’em ups on the Sega Genesis. I had a lot of fun with it. It isn’t as good as the Golden Axe or Streets of Rage games. It is a fun game that offers something different.

This can be considered a classic beat’em up. While it didn’t get the same attention from Sega as Golden Axe did, I still enjoy it. The parts of it that I like the most weren’t the beat’em up sections. If it is brought back, I would love for it to be a rail shooter.

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about beat’em ups. Some recommendations are Captain America and the Avengers or King of Dragons.