Alien Soldier

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VISUALSHOCK! SPEEDSHOCK! SOUNDSHOCK! NOW IS TIME TO THE 68000 HEART ON FIRE!

Alien Soldier is a 1995 run-and-gun game by Treasure for the Sega Genesis. While it shares some similarities with other run-and-guns, the focus here is on lightning fast reflexes instead of using the strongest weapon avaliable. You play as Epsilon-Eagle, a cybernetic birdman who fights against the rogue organization Scarlet, travelling throughout the galaxy and leaving large amounts of carnage in your wake.

The plot, if it even matters, concerns a criminal organization of genetically-engineered beings called "Scarlet" who terrorized the planet Sierra. Their members are able to live within humans, animals and machines via a parasitic ability. Epsilon-Eagle, the leader of Scarlet, was ambushed by a team of Sierrans with super powers, and thrown into the space-time continuum. The new leader of Scarlet, Xi-Tiger, was hated by his own men for being too ruthless compared to Epsilon, and as such he wanted to destroy Epsilon once and for all. Xi-Tiger attacked a Sierran research laboratory where he sensed Epsilon in the body of a boy. He took a random girl hostage so as to force Epsilon to come out. Epsilon, instead, transformed from a boy into a cyborg birdman. However, Epsilon's good human side began to overcome his evilness and made him want to fight the demons. This annoyed Xi-Tiger, who killed the girl before running away. The plot actually makes even less sense as it proceeds, with the planet blowing up and Epsilon ending up fighting a giant mechanical lion called Z Leo without the player really having any idea who he is or why this is necessary.

Epsilon's a handy fellow, able to carry four weapons at a time. Each one of these can be chosen from a list at the start of the game:

• Buster Force, a standard, rapid no-nonsense blaster which starts bouncing off everything about halfway though the game.
• Flame Force, a short-ranged flamethrower. The boss-killer.
• Homing Force, which fires homing flames, and is probably the best general-use weapon until late in the game.
• Ranger Force, a slightly useless spread gun.
• Sword Force, a rapid but weak laser.
• Lancer Force, a better laser that uses more ammunition. The other boss-killer.

Epsilon-Eagle has several unique abilities at his disposal, including a dash-like teleportation, levitation, a bullet-neutralizing shield, as well as a Ceiling Cling. All of these require the player to be on their toes, as waves of enemies and powerful bosses come after them. Even on the easiest difficulty, the game is obscenely hard in Treasure tradition.

Tropes used in Alien Soldier include:

• 0% Approval Rating: Xi-Tiger, the new leader of Scarlet. He's hated by his own comrades due to being too ruthless towards the Sierrans, tries to kill off his old deposed leader, but what takes the cake is that he takes an innocent girl hostage AND KILLS HER. When you fight him, he literally transforms himself into a monster tiger.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer
• Airborne Mook:
  • Those goddamned flies that flew round in random circles, then shot at you and kamikazed into you. Hope you have the Homing Force ready...
  • Those bomb-dropping birds can be a pain in the ass too.
  • As well as those things that travel in long lines and explode into suicide bullets, found at only one part of the game. A smart player can use the Bullet Catch ability to turn their bullets into health.
• All There in the Manual: The confusing plot, such as it is, is outlined there. Scarlet members can apparently exist both as parasites that possess people and as the monstrosities fought in the game. This might also explain why the Epsilon fought in the game is a giant metal bird with laser cannons for wings. The properly-translated version of the ROM does tell the story properly in the intro.
• Arbitrary Maximum Range: All weapons except for Lancer get this as their ammunition goes lower.
• Attack Its Weak Point: All bosses have a weak spot, where you must hit if you want to do big damage to them (or even damage them at all). Some of the enemies are even more bizarre: they have a different weak spot against different weapons. For example, Wolfgunblood's head is weak to fire weapons and the Buster Force, while Garopa's head is weak to the Lancer Force. Though Homing Force says the target on Wolfgunblood is somewhere else entirely.
• Awesome but Impractical: Ranger, and to a lesser extent, Sword.
• Badass: Epsilon-Eagle.
• Big Badass Wolf: Wolfgunblood is a anthropomorphic cyborg cowboy wolf with a gatling Arm Cannon, riding on a Mechanical Horse, Garopa. And it's one of the most Badass, if not strangest boss fights in the game. See the picture at the top of the page.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Quite a few, such as Antroid, Bugmax (a moth), Viblack (a giant fly) and Back Stringer (which unceremoniously eats the former).
• Blackout Basement: One of the levels takes place in complete blackness save for a few background lights- you have to use your Muzzle Flashlight to light it up.
• Boss Arena Urgency: Back Stringer. If the baby spiders pull the giant fly platform to the bottom of the screen until it disappears, you'll keep falling into the bottomless pit OVER AND OVER AGAIN (read: Game Over)!
• Boss Game: Stages are generally short, with only a handful of enemies at a time in the spaces between one boss and the next.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Limited ammunition for your strongest weapons is one of the largest threats you face. It only recharges when you collect a new weapon, or switch to a different one.
• Bullet Catch: Epsilon-Eagle's main ability. Hit the shoot button twice to create a small forcefield that turns enemy fire into health. Make sure you don't do this with a Lancer equipped, though.
• Came Back Wrong: You know that girl that died in your failed attempt to save her? Not only does she became one of the game's bosses, she's freaking Seven Force.
• Cameo: Melon Bread and Seven Force, both markedly different from their Gunstar Heroes incarnations.
• Cast from Hit Points: At full health (health bar flashing white), Epsilon-Eagle can utilize a fiery teleport-dash which destroys any Mooks in its path as well as heavily damaging bosses. However, this attack does come at the cost of a few hit points, so you need to collect the rather frequently-dropped health powerups.
• Ceiling Cling: Epsilon-Eagle's other main ability.
• Cherry Tapping: Run out of ammo from one of your weapons and it becomes a weak-as-hell "yellow short-range smoke" shot thing. You can still use it to defeat bosses. It's one of three ways to damage the Final Boss (the other two being shot reflection and your fiery dash which you can only use once against him).
• Collision Damage: Just about every enemy save for some bosses.
• Continuing Is Painful: Using a continue or password removes extra ammunition and health.
• Critical Existence Failure: Both Epsilon and his opponents don't show any signs of tiredness or damage at low health. Especially egregious when Epsilon has been reduced to one hit point- he looks perfectly fine until he gets hit again, after which he explodes in a fiery mess.
• Crosshair Aware:
  • Using certain Force weapons causes a boss's weak spot to be highlighted with a crosshair, telling you where to shoot.
  • Epsilon-1 also has these during the boss fight against him. Get out of the way or else you'll be blasted by the mecha bird's Eye Beams or a laser from a Kill Sat.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: You can switch to and away from fixed-fire mode, though the moving-fire mode drains more weapon power.
• Dub Name Change: The terms "A-Earth" and "A-Human" are changed to "Sierra" and "Sierrans" in the European version.
• Earthshattering Kaboom: The planet literally blows up about halfway through the game. Then, um... Well, it's not really that clear. It apparently gets better during the credits.
• Elevator Action Sequence: The battles against Epsilon-1 and the Stage 24 boss take place on elevator platforms. For the former, the platform is always rising, while you can adjust the height of it in the latter fight by pressing up and down.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Sierra inexplicably blows up partway through the game. It gets better.
• Eternal Engine: Most of the game's environments are machinery-themed, with the first and last few stages standing out.
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Deep Strider.
• Everything Is Worse With Bears: Subverted by the aformentioned teddy bear, who is the only ally you'll get the whole game. The track that plays during his stage is even named Epsilon's Ally.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Except for a blue teddy bear.
• Evil Counterpart/Evil Twin: Epsilon-1.
• Evil Is Visceral: Nearly all the enemies and bosses until the last few bosses are this.
• Explosions in Space
• Face Heel Turn: The girl you failed to save in the beginning.
• Free-Fall Fight: Silpheed Force.
• Frickin' Laser Beams: Sword and Lancer.
• Giant Enemy Crab:
  • Madam Barbar, who walks on the ceiling and spawns smaller baby crabs that try to hold Epsilon in place.
  • One of the bosses in the game is a giant lobster. He throws the poor blue teddy bear driving your boat overboard!
• Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Almost everything. Giant Enemy Crab in an airport, cyborg cowboy wolf riding a Mechanical Horse in a tunnel, etc.
• Giant Spider: Back Stringer.
• Heel Face Turn: Epsilon does this in the game's intro.
• Helpful Mook: Any Mook that can fire those orange shots at the player. They will drop health pickups when their shots are destroyed via Bullet Catch. You're going to thank them for that, by the way.
• High Altitude Battle
• High Speed Battle: Wolfgunblood and Garopa are fought while racing alongside them through a zero-gravity tunnel; approaching walls serve as frequent obstacles. Earlier on, a giant lobster is fought on an out-of-control speedboat, which affects Epsilon's jumping.
• Hit Points: You can choose to have this as an indicator to how much life you and/or the boss has.
• Horse Jump: Wolfgunblood and Garopa use this as an "attack" when the low walls appear. You gotta avoid the walls too or risk getting damaged.
• HP to One: No single attack can kill you outright; you must be reduced to one health first, giving you time to collect health. However, some attacks are rapid enough that you won't have a chance for this.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Superhard and Supereasy. Even though the latter is anything but; enemies are less tough, you receive unlimited continues (via a password system) and get an option to slow the game speed down.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: The tagline quoted at the top of the page, which is apparently touting what Treasure could squeeze out of the Sega Genesis' Motorola MC68000 CPU in terms of graphics, framerate, and sound quality.
• Invisible Monsters: Flying-Neo, a creature that looks like a cross between a zombie dragon and a helicopter. Once you get him down to a quarter of it's health, the goddamn thing bceomes completely invisible save for a silhouette of its tail and legs on the platform you're on when it flies low or when the lightning strikes.
• Kill It with Fire: You get two flamethrowers; a conventional one, and a homing flamethrower. Fire works very, very well on organic enemies, especially that giant plant Sunset Sting.
• Land Mine Goes Click: Mines, both on the ground and floating in midair, are a common obstacle.
• Last Chance Hit Point: And you're gonna need it.
• Life Meter: One of the selectable ways to know how much life left that you have or the enemy has. If desired, you can turn them off.
• Lightning Reveal: Done in the fight against Flying-Neo. Once you get it down to a quarter of its health, it turns invisible. The background flashes of lightning will give away its silhouette though.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating Z-Leo causes his base to explode, which Epsilon makes a getaway from in the ending cutscene.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Wolfgunblood and Garopa: If you think it's a wolf who wields a gun, is out for your blood, and is riding on a galloper, you're damn right.
  • Sniper Honeyviper: It looks like a snake, and it sends out bees. Thankfully it can't give you headshots.
  • Antroid: Ant + Android, it is indeed a giant humanoid ant.
  • Back Stringer: Being a spider, it strings things up. On their backs, presumably.
  • Shellshogun: A bipedal alien samurai tortoise. Enough said.
  • Seven Force: See below.
• Mechanical Horse: Wolfgunblood rides one of these.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: From half man, half eagle to half lion and half mecha.
• Muzzle Flashlight: You're going to have to utilize this in the Blackout Basement stage.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Many of the bosses:
  • Shellshogun: A giant alien tortoise Samurai.
  • Flying-Neo: An alien zombie dragon helicopter that turns invisible once it's health is low.
  • Wolfgunblood & Garopa: An anthropomorphic cyborg cowboy wolf with a machine-gun Arm Cannon that rides on a Mechanical Horse. See the picture at the top of the page.
• Nintendo Hard: No surprise, it's by Treasure.
• Non Lethal Bottomless Pits: Somewhat. Falling into a pit will trigger a button-mashing sequence to get out while your health drops at a steady rate.
• One-Man Army: Epsilon-Eagle has no allies, but that doesn't stop him from wrecking an entire legion of aliens and machines.
• Outrun the Fireball: In the ending, Epsilon uses his fiery dash to escape Z-Leo's exploding base.
• Painfully-Slow Projectile: A few boss attacks create these, while Epsilon's own Lancer Force shoots a slow laser that needs to be timed well to deal the most damage.
• Painful Transformation: Xi-Tiger. Though the cutscene showing this sometimes doesn't work.
• Power Floats: Epsilon-Eagle's other other main ability. Hit the jump button in midair to do this.
• Ratchet Scrolling: The short level segments only scroll leftwards or upwards to prevent backtracking.
• Ring Menu: The action does not stop while this is open.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: During the initial weapon selection and configuration, the player has the option to make all information about his health, ammunition and boss health into '???', essentially preventing the player from tracking how much damage was taken or dealt.
• Sequential Boss: Seven Force, which only has six forms (including the human form she starts in). This is because the "Seven" is a reference to the Mode 7-style rotation effects the boss showcases, not the number of forms it has.
• Shown Their Work: The developers made it such that fire attacks don't work underwater when fighting against Sirene Force. Fire still works in space though.
• Space Zone: Stages 21 through 23 take place in outer space, where the lack of gravity lets Epsilon move in all directions and lets him dash without having to duck first.
• Spread Shot: The Hunter Force. Pity it was kind of useless from the beginning...
• Stat Meters: Upon startup, you can choose how your health, your ammunition, and the bosses' health meters are displayed. They can be made invisible, even.
• Strong Flesh, Weak Steel: Epsilon can take a lot of punishment from robotic bosses' missiles and lasers, while those robots can be torn through with everything but the Flame Force.
• Stuff Blowing Up: As a successor to Gunstar Heroes, it's only natural that this game also features many, many explosions.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Subverted during the Absurdly Spacious Sewer stage. If you fall into the water, you have to do a button-mashing sequence to get out as your health rapidly drops. Played straight against Sirene Force.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Bugmax in its moth form. The dumb thing drops A LOT of caterpillars on the floor, which you can destroy for health. Allowing you to use your full health-only, Cast from Hit Points fiery teleport move effortlessly on it. MULTIPLE TIMES.
• Teleport Spam: Epsilon-Eagle's other other other main ability. At full health, he turns into a firey phoenix that inflicts a great deal of damage to those in his path, although it does come at a cost to his health.
• Tennis Boss: In order to defeat Z-Leo, the Final Boss, you must use your bullet cancel ability to knock his spiralling fireballs back into his head.
• Timed Mission: Every stage runs on an individual timer, and letting the timer run out leads to an instant game over. This also makes every boss a Time-Limit Boss.
• Traintop Battle: Most notably the boss battle with Xi-Tiger.
• Underground Level: The entire Seven Force fight takes place in expansive caverns, first starting out rocky and icy like the area that preceded it before Silpheed Force drags Epsilon down to some ancient ruins where the remaining forms are fought.
• Underwater Boss Battle: Siren Force.
• Word Salad Title: Sniper Honeyviper, Wolfgunblood and Garopa, and a few others.
• Zeerust: Some of the mechanical enemies have a retro-future vibe to their designs, and Epsilon-Eagle's spacesuit fits in this as well.