Now in VGA Technicolor

I wanted to do a platformer this week, a platformer that was made freeware by the publisher, so I went with this underappreciated classic, Alien Carnage.

Developer: Interactive Binary Illusions/Sub Zero
Publisher: Apogee

Gameplay: Like overhead shooters, platformers were a dime a dozen back in the 80's and early to mid 90's even on the PC. Very few platformers actually wandered off the beaten path and dared to do something different; Alien Carnage is one of the few titles that tried to do this. Alien Carnage's gameplay consisted of rescuing hostages throughout four episodes while battling aliens, and zombies using your trusty flamethrower and jetpack (since Harry apparently couldn't jump).

It's not a platformer without a generic sewer level

You could also purchase other weapons from vending machines using credits that you got from enemies that you've killed. This is actually a good thing to do since your flamethrower uses the exact same fuel as your jetpack. This means that if you ran out of ammo for your flamethrower, or fuel for your jetpack, you couldn't use either of these until you got a refill. Unfortunately if you ran out of fuel in this game that usually meant you had to restart since Harry couldn't jump, meaning that you usually had to refill your fuel canisters regularly if you didn't want to start a level over again.

Harry's only mode of going up was his jetpack

As with most PC platformers, each of the four episodes always ended with a boss battle.

Oh boy a generic boss battle

Alien Carnage was still a pretty unique game, despite containing a few common platformer elements.

Design: As I previously pointed out, Alien Carnage was a pretty unique platformer. It differentiated itself from other platformers by giving you a clear cut objective before going to the exit, in this case rescuing hostages.

Before you could race to the exit you had to rescue all hostages in each level

The game's visuals were pretty good for a 1993 title, and the music was fairly catchy despite being a generic upbeat platformer MIDI score. Each episode also began with a brief "animated" sequence where Harry and his commanding officer Diane had a brief conversation about the upcoming mission.

Harry doesn't like lawyers

Unfortunately every episode of the game was the same except for the tileset used for that particular episode, the boss, and some select enemies. Of course, this was a common facet of shareware gaming back in the day, but this also gave you less motivation to go out and buy the other episodes. If they were the same... what was the point?

Who needs Left 4 Dead?

Nostalgia Factor: To be honest I wasn't a big fan of Alien Carnage back in the day, but it's easier to appreciate now thanks to the gradual decline of the video game industry. Unfortunately since I didn't play it all that much, playing it again has had little nostalgia factor for me.

Critical Reception: I couldn't find anything.

How it holds up: There are very few platformers these days, so I'd argue that Alien Carnage holds up very well. It's not just another "get to the exit" game like more popular console and PC platformers from this era. Alien Carnage isn't perfect by any stretch of the word, and I wouldn't call it revolutionary either. If you're looking for a solid platformer, though; Alien Carnage is definitely worth checking out since Apogee made it freeware.

Useless Trivia:
- The shareware version of Alien Carnage was called Halloween Harry.
- Alien Carnage had a lesser known sequel called Zombie Wars.

External Links:
Alien Carnage on Moby Games
Download the full version directly from 3D Realms