Alien Crush is a quirky little game that some will love and others will care little about.
There is no real story to speak of that I am aware of in this game. The only thing that one could surmise is that the ball you control is your weapon against the forces of evil. Or it is probably something along these lines. I’m honestly not too sure just what the heck is really going on but in a pinball game who really cares about the story? You don’t worry about the storyline behind an arcade pinball machine so don’t get too hung up on it with this game. Just enjoy playing the game for what it is… and breaking the high score of course.
The gameplay is pretty basic, you have two flippers to control and you are to use them to make the ball bounce around so you can get a high score. It’s as simple as that really. Of course there is more to it than that, but as is usual with pinball it is easier to play pinball than it is to master the game. Between the two flippers, the ability to shake the machine (making it easier to force the ball to go where you want it) and learning how to use the variety of bumpers and creatures that litter the playing field, you will have a lot to learn how to master playing the in’s and out’s for this game.
Graphically, this game isn’t all that impressive, but there is a nice amount of fine detail to be noticed in all of the creatures on the field as well as the levels themselves. From the little creatures that you are going to be killing with your ball or the face of the creature in the middle of the arena, there are plenty of fine graphical details in this game. Of course, being from the Sega Genesis, these aren’t the state of the art graphics we get nowadays, but they are by no means poor. The audio isn’t nearly as nice, being somewhat repetitive but it gets the job done. Once again, this is basically a pinball game brought to the home systems so it isn’t exactly the most audio intensive game.
While this game isn’t going to win any awards for innovation or game design, it is a highly enjoyable pinball game with a twist. To anyone who has enjoyed pinball games in the past, be they in an arcade machine or video game form, Alien Crush is a nice breath of fresh air. You will find yourself killing weird aliens and all forms of foul creatures with your little pinball with a serious amount of gusto. At no point will you find yourself lacking things to do or interesting mini-games to play and what are games but things to keep us amused. At that it succeeds greatly.
Pros: This is one of the most unique games that have ever been created and there are a variety of mini-games to be played over the course of this game.
Cons: This game can feel prohibitively hard and there are a few times when you lose your ball and it feels like a cheap loss.
Score: 7
Recommendation: If the game doesn’t sound interesting by the time you finish reading a few reviews for it, pass on it.