Alien Storm



A Sega arcade game released in 1990 that's a cross between a Beat'Em Up, a Shoot'Em Up and a Rail Shooter, depending on the section of the level. It was developed by Team Shinobi and essentially it's Golden Axe remade in a sci-fi setting. It was ported to the Sega Genesis, Master System and various home computer formats.

The "plot" of the arcade version is thus: a man, a woman, and a robot witness an alien invasion and take their "Alien Burger" joint, which is also a van, relabel it "Alien Busters", and proceed to kick some ass. The Genesis version's plot is a more straightforward alien invasion story that takes itself at face value.

For the most part, you run through levels and fight grotesque and creepy looking aliens with moves that include punches, kicks, and shooting them close-range. There are moments where you switch to a side-scrolling shooter where you run forward automatically, and have to shoot enemies as you go. All levels also contain at least one segment which switches to a first-person view where you move a crosshairs around to aim your gun and shoot enemies. The environment itself is destructable in these segmants.

The last level is a Womb Level, as you suddenly get eaten by a strange looking alien, which immediately flies off into space.

The ending of the original arcade version is just silly, and has the characters more-or-less "dancing" to weird random imagery, before you're graded on your performance by the heroes of other Sega games.


 * Color-Coded Multiplayer: For some reasons, the colors wore by the player characters in the arcade game differ between the 2-Player version (where the player can choose his or her character) and the 3-Player version (where they're assigned by the position of the controls).
 * 2-Player version:
 * Gordon.
 * Karla.
 * Scooter
 * 3-Player version:
 * Gordon (Player 1).
 * Karla (Player 2).
 * Scooter (Player 3).
 * Demoted to Extra: Karla is missing in the 8-bit Master System version, although Gordon wields her flamethrower instead of his usual thunder gun, making him something of a composite character.
 * Downer Ending: In the Sega Genesis version, we're told in narration we don't know if the heroes survived, and the scene of their car/spaceship coming to pick them up is removed. In the arcade version, they survive just fine. After the ending of both versions, though, we get a humorous "music video" afterwards.
 * Engrish: Though the rest of the spoken one-liners - all voiced by Americans (or at least very fluent English speakers) - make sense, there's also this: "Heyyyy, let's challenge!" Spoken with a surfer dude accent, no less.
 * Excuse Plot: There are aliens! Let's get out of our burger joint-turned-car/spaceship and get them!
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Well, it's giant, it flies, and it promptly eats you the instant you see it before taking off into space.
 * Token Trio: Gordon (a man), Karla (a woman) and Scooter (a robot).
 * Totally Radical: Just listen to Gordon's voice in the arcade version. His voice sounds like a complete surfer dude, as he spouts lines like "You're TOAST, duuuuude!" and "Bad breath, maaan!", along with the makes-sense-in-Japanese-but-not-in-English "Heyyyyy, let's challenge!".
 * Weapon of Choice:
 * Gordon: Thunder Gun.
 * Karla: Flamethrower.
 * Scotter: Electromagnetic Whip.
 * Womb Level: Comes out of nowhere. Where'd that guy come from who just eats you with his alien tongue in a split-second? The inside of his body has multiple paths in the arcade version, but is much more maze-like in the Sega Genesis version, complete with a map that shows up if you pause. It ends with you destroying its brain.