Alien Soldier

About Alien Soldier

Alien Soldier (1995) is Treasure's late Mega Drive run-and-gun of 25 short stages and 26 bosses, built "for Mega Drivers custom" and released in North America only on the Sega Channel.

Alien Soldier in Depth

Compared heavily with Treasure's Gunstar Heroes, it puts far more weight on boss fights and has no two-player mode; the stages are short and filled with weak enemies, serving as breathers between 26 difficult bosses. Epsilon-Eagle can run, double jump, hover and carry four of six weapons, chosen before the game begins, each with its own ammunition bar. A dash across the screen becomes a damaging "Phoenix Force" attack when he is at full health, and a well-timed counter turns enemy bullets into health. He can fire in a fixed stance, standing still for quick aiming, or while moving, at the cost of directional accuracy. There are two difficulty settings, "supereasy" and "superhard"; the hard setting's enemies are only slightly tougher, but it has no passwords or unlimited continues.

The premise is given once, in an opening text scroll. In 2015 on A-Earth, Epsilon-Eagle, leader of the terrorist group Scarlet, is gravely wounded in an assassination attempt and lost in the space-time continuum. His successor Xi-Tiger proves too brutal even for Scarlet. When Xi attacks a laboratory and kills a girl, Epsilon, living as a parasite in a boy's body, reveals himself and sets out after him.

Making Alien Soldier

After Gunstar Heroes, Treasure split into four teams, making Dynamite Headdy, Light Crusader, a Yū Yū Hakusho fighter and Alien Soldier. Suganami led the two-year project and chose the Mega Drive despite 32-bit hardware being on sale, saying he may have been too captivated by making an "action shooting" game; Treasure aimed it explicitly at "hardcore" players, designing its difficulty and scoring for them. He cut most of a planned backstory to meet a 3 January 1995 deadline, and when he realised he could not finish alone, other staff joined and he worked through the New Year holidays.

Sega released it in Japan on 24 February 1995 and in Europe that May. Famitsu gave it 24 out of 40, but Mean Machines Sega called it "a real gameplayer's game" and a modern classic. Later reviewers praised its graphics, sound and intensity while warning of its steep learning curve; GameSpot said it made you feel like "an army of one". It was re-released on the PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2006, the Wii Virtual Console in 2007 and Steam in 2011.