A Visually Stunning 2D Shoot em Up.
Originally a widely popular P.C flash game from the 'New Grounds' website. The story of this particular game basically centres around the misadventures of a cute 'but deadly' yellow alien who was unfortunate enough to be blasted out of the sky by the F.B.I whilst joyriding around Earth's atmosphere in it's U.F.O. The object of the game is to simply retrieve the aliens U.F.O, but this is no easy task !
The single player compaign is broken down into fifteen extremely intense levels, each one consisting of it's own exquisite art style, slick animation, wacky humour and crazy boss fights. Some of the bosses are so huge that they easily fill most of the screen. The game also has four difficulty settings, Easy, Hard, Medium and 'Thumb Sucker'.
Gameplay basically consists of controlling the alien in 'third person' prospective. The alien has various moves and abilities, some of which include crouching, rolling, biting, burrowing underground and throwing and slicing enemies in half. The alien is also equiped with a powerfull ray gun capable of firing 'Phantom Bursts', 'Ice Rays', 'Acid Blasts', 'Laser Shots' and a 'Spread Shot'.
There are also a number of collectables, secrets and mini games that may be unlocked when specific events accure whilst advancing through the game. The 'Foghorn' cleverly alerts the player once something has been unlocked ! The five unlockable mini games are 'All You Can Eat', 'Pinyata Boss', 'Neutron Ball', 'Super Soviet Missile Blaster' and 'Challenge'.
But what makes this particular game really stand out is the fact that this title also includes over 200 very clever and very addictive 'P.D.A' games. These 'P.D.A' games unlock five at a time only upon completion. They include the characteristics and simplicity to the platform titles of the late 70's and earlie 80's.. The player simply has to guide a 'stick man' from one side of the screen to the other. A simple idea, but not so simple to complete !
Personally, I really enjoyed playing through this title. The fact that everything in the game was hand drawn by 'Dan Paladin' simply makes this game quite unique visually. It's good to know that 2D side scrolling shoot em up titles are still being made.
If you are 'Old School' just like me, then you will probably enjoy "Alien Hominid".