Alien Hominid

[Omni]

Then maybe they should've stuck to their original release date, which was well before Halo 2 and even a week BEFORE San Andreas.

This is funny, since the first delay, one of the developers had said the game was 100% done, it's just that Sony needs to make enough copies and distrubute them, and "the game would be here real soon guys, don't worry about this small delay".

And yet it's delayed again.

This game won't sell well no matter what, even if Halo 2 and GTA didn't exist.

The fact that they do is just the nail in the coffin.

Game looks awesome, though.

[Dolemite]

Impressions, bitches.

[Roufuss]

Impressions, bitches.

Gonna have to wait until tonight.

[James]

Dumped it in the PS2 demo machine. I'm sure there was a way I could have resisted the temptation but I've no idea why I'd want to.

Impressions from level 1-

Run left to right, shoot things. The art is nicely detailed with all sorts of fun background bits in it (I want the job of the goon in the beginning after they clean up the UFO crash, carrying the large sign saying "Nothing to see here") although the animation could use an extra frame or two. It's not bad animation but I've played Metal Slug 3, so maybe I'm spoiled.

There's lots of powerups, lots of ways to kill goons, and so far the enemies are fun to annihilate. About my only real complaint is that I've had a few deaths I can't explain, whether by invisible (or unnoticed) bullets or some other thing, but I'm hoping a bit of practice will make them a bit more obvious.

I've fought 2.5 bosses so far (one of the level 1 guys takes a fair bit of pounding to go down) and, in classic side-scrolling tradition, they seemed hard until I got the pattern. They aren't easy yet but that's a matter of practice, although I do wish they had shorter life bars. Once I've figured out the pattern and can do it reliably I'd rather not keep doing it over and over.

You can steal cars and drive them through the level and the hominid hangs his head out the window, shooting while driving with a huge smile on his alien head.

James

[Curtis]

I'm with James, especially on the life bars. I found that once I had the pattern down... The fight just lasted too long afterward. It's a great game, the boss fights can just wear on a bit but at least they end before they ruin the experience.

I'm also nowhere farther than James so this might change as the game treks on and bosses (possibly) have more pattern changeups at different points of the bar like the one in 1-2 did.

[galvatron]

James: The mysterious deaths were most likely bullets, probably ones coming right at you in your bullet stream. They're pretty similar in color to your own...

As for the bosses wearing on too long, it's a bit like Contra: SS in that once you learn how to properly unload on the bosses, they go down fairly quickly...although the base grenade could use some beefing up (your grenades get powered up along with the gun your holding).

I can't say I've got a lot of hope for finishing in one life as the enemies shoot at you (as opposed to just spraying bullets) with little start up, seemingly randomly at times, block your knife attacks sporadically, and don't hesitate to shoot at point blank range. I've definitely gotten better since I started, but I'm not sure if there's too much randomness working against me to get it all perfect. I got S-rank in Contra:SS, but this game seems like you might just have to eat the occasional "wrong place, wrong time" random death...still very fun and this is only after a couple of hours of playing.

I think I got to level 2 and theres some fun/ funny stuff that happens in between. Only other gripes are that the load times are noticeably longer in progressive scan (it's their first console game, so I'll forgive them), the game locked up on me once after a level segment, there's a part that only has dual analog control in 2 player (player 2 is gunner) and could really use that ability in single player, and burrowing/throwing doesn't seem to be worth the effort against random enemies. Again, I'm just getting out everything that bugs me, but overall I'm having fun. It's definitely it's own game, and it really doesn't feel like a metal slug game, despite having similar controls...which I think is a good thing.

The PDA games are pretty cool as they're sorta like "n" lite. You have single screen puzzles where you have to kill all the FBI guys on screen by hopping on their heads or otherwise killing them with obstacles and then proceed to the goal. A lot more hope for the 1 life run there, and it'll be quite the marathon since they start you from level 1 after game over. The editor is cool and easy to use, as well, so you can easily whip up some new levels for yourself.

[James]

D'oh! I forgot to mention the PDA games, those look to be a lot of fun. I played about 2 levels or so and fully plan to do more later, but I've always been a fan of simple, single-screen games. They're like popcorn, nobody can eat just one level.

Blame the disjointed nature on my previous post on me typing before crashing after a full workday on only 3 hours sleep. We now return you to your regularly scheduled coherence.

James

[Curtis]

Just thought I'd add this. I finally got back to playing and took out 1-5. If any of you are like me and were a little wary of the spaceship levels (Spacecraft based bonus levels in games just don't have a great track record), don't be. This was my first and it was an absolute blast. A little like Bangaio, but with less crazyness and an open sky to fight in. The only qualm I had was that the viewpoint could have been pulled back some, but that didn't really matter. It was frantic and, most important, fun as hell.

In Russia now. I'm happy I got the only copy my EB got in stock and everyone interested should grab this before you miss it. MGS3 will be around next payday, hell, it will be around when you're 80. AH won't. The only game I could see being a justified pick over this is HL2.

[Shakey]

played this with a friend the other night.

It seems almost like a 128 bit flash game, that said it's a lot of fun. It's quirky and I like the look, boss battles do drag a little bit like everyone else said (there's a miniboss in the fourth level that took ridiculously long to beat).

Has anyone else noticed any bugginess, at least in the PS2 copy? The copy my friend had completely tweaked out twice in 2 hours of play, once freezing in a loading screen (green screen of death?) and once when the fourth level boss basically refused to show up (just kept throwing FBI agents at me.)

If it's as buggy as that one copy, I'll probably hold off on buying it full price, aside from that the game was excellent though.

[Curtis]

I don't know if anyone else is as stupid as I am, but I forgot to add that I wasn't making good use of the charge shot. Probably because I'm so used to the flash game and also that charge shots on the norm for the genre, but I completely overlooked it. Grenades are nerfed in this game for a reason and that reason is you having a similarly powered shot at your disposal at any given time.

Boss battles go a lot quicker now.

Also, no glitches on my side of things but I always seem to luck out when it comes to them. I never even experienced any in Mario Sunshine and you people can't shut up about how glitches make that game unplayable.

*waits for TNL idiot x to remind him that glitches aren't the thing making SMS unplayable*