Or ALIEN CUBED, as I affectionately called it (remember that little raised
three?). Anyway, Ripley's back...and she's bald. Rather than being a
faithful adaptation of David Fincher's bleak (and least, in my humble
opinion) third film in the excellent ALIEN film series, this SNES version is
more of a mixture between the aforementioned film and James Cameron's ALIENS,
the second film in the franchise. I don't remember any Queen Aliens in ALIEN
3, do you? Actually, I don't remember ANY other aliens in part 3, other than
that one dog alien... But you'll find'em here...and in abundance. But then,
if there was only one...where would the fun be? Grab a flame-thrower and
start blasting!
Graphics [8/10]:
Very nice, although a little blurry in some areas, ALIEN 3 delivers. Nice,
dark backgrounds bring the prison planet to life and lively characters with
some decent animation seal the deal. The Ripley character could have been a
little more defined and detailed, but...you know it's her. The aliens
themselves look great. The Facehuggers do, too...scurrying across the floor
towards you...creepy. Not the best graphics I've seen on the SNES, but FAR
from the worst....and it puts the Sega Genesis version to shame. 'Nuff said.
Music and Sound [8/10]:
Very nice...the first time you blast an alien with your flame-thrower and it
explodes, you'll see what I mean. Music is pounding and suspenseful, keeping
the mood of the game flowing throughout, adding to a certain feel of urgency.
The screeches of the aliens gave me chills when I first played this back in
the early 90's. And while they've lose some of their impact, they're still
excellent-sounding...a good way to describe this whole game.
Gameplay [6.5/10]:
Here's where the game suffers. Stunted "Jurassic Park II: The Chaos
Continues"-styled mission setups, Confusing maps that tend to lead you in the
WRONG direction, and not NEARLY enough ammo to get you through the whole
thing... It's a shame this good-looking game doesn't have the gusto to back
it up. I found myself wandering around dark tunnels and smoky hallways,
blasting aliens, blasting aliens, blasting aliens (causing me to run out of
ammo, but I repeat myself). The missions just aren't unique enough to keep
you interested for too long. I had rescued many of the trapped prisoners
before I'd even READ the "rescue the prisoners" mission briefing. Too much
of the game is spent simply running in random directions and firing away.
Challenge and Replay [5/10]:
As I've said, many of the missions that you are to complete in order to
finish the game can be quite finger-numbing. Facehuggers are EVERYWHERE and
they're the most difficult to defeat (being that they're so low to the
ground) and they can get in your way quite a bit. When you're trying to find
that trapped prisoner behind that wall that the map is saying you need to get
behind in order to find and you're thinking "There IS no wall...this map is
useless!"...they'll get you. Game Over. So things can be quite difficult.
Frustration sets in. I would imagine replay would be low unless you're a
huge ALIEN fan such as myself. And there's a fine line between "challenging"
and "much-too-difficult." Certain rooms have very strange setups...and can
be cramped and tough to navigate. All those ladders and tight
quarters...and, again, facehuggers...not a winning combo.
Conclusion/Overall [7/10]:
If you have a Game Genie, I cannot think of a better reason to use it than
right here. (Although my Genie caused the game to freeze when I entered and
exited certain rooms). Once you get that "Infinite Oil for Flame-thrower"
code in, just fire away and have fun. Sure, it's just a lot of shooting and
running, but then, that's exactly what I was expecting when I bought this
game, so I wasn't disappointed when that's just what I got. Imagine how
boring it would have been had it stuck close to the movie....NO GUNS?!?!?!
Oh well...it's no classic, but an interesting find for ALIEN fans. Give it a
look. Others might do well to stand clear.
