Description
A playthrough of Square's license-based action-platformer for the Famicom Disk System, Aliens: エイリアン２(Alien 2).
Square's Aliens: Alien 2 was released in 1987 as a Japanese MSX exclusive, but a prototype version of a Famicom Disk System version (dated 15 December 1986) was discovered, dumped, and released online in early 2011.
In a 2018 interview, Takashi Tokita, who got his start at Square doing the art for Aliens (and later made a name for himself as the lead designer on Final Fantasy IV and director for Live a Live, Chrono Trigger, and Parasite Eve), said that Square programmed the MSX game internally, and that work on the FDS version had been contracted out. Apparently dissatisfied with the quality of the port, Square canceled it after it had "reached a stage between alpha and beta version."
Aliens is a semi-linear platformer in which you, as Ripley, run-and-gun your way through xenomorphs while exploring Hadley's Hope in search of Newt. There are four stages, each of which ends in a battle with the queen, and Ripley can find multiple guns (including shotguns, flamethrowers, and laser pistols) and secondary weapons (like grenades and smart bombs) strewn throughout, in addition to items that'll improve her jump height, armor, and the size of her life bar.
It's clearly unfinished, but the FDS version of Aliens can be completed without encountering any game-breaking bugs. The controls and hit detection are extremely rough, but the graphics are better than the MSX version's, and the music features a few recognizable chiptune renditions of the movie's themes. For a 1986 production, it's not bad, but it's not hard to see why Square ultimately shelved it.
It's not polished, nor is it particularly good, but Aliens: Alien 2 is an interesting novelty that I had a good time checking out.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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