Give me fuel!, Give me fire!, Give that which I desire!!
In the Genesis era, you've may know Treasure for Gunstar Heroes, but they took their learned experiences in videogames and put them on practice and full display with Alien Soldier.
The game has two difficulties to offer: Supereasy and Superhard. In "Supereasy" you can adjust the game speed if things get tough, giving you a chance to learn the enemies attack patterns and switch your weapons with a little more time, so this means that "SPEED" is the name of the game 'cos "Superhard" doesn't include the speed adjustment on the pause screen. You can select 4 of 6 available weapons, from the basic "Buster Force" to the powerful "Flame Force", "Sword Force" and "Lancer Force", all weapons have limited "ammo" and some weapons consume more Force ammo than others, also you can grab the same Force weapon more than once, but it's better to have a good selection (example: Buster, Flame, Sword and Lancer). During the game you can grab an item to change one weapon, the traded weapon will depend on the weapon "symbol". If you pick the item with the same symbol as your selected weapon (example pick the Buster Force with the Buster selected), will increase your "Ammo points" of the selected weapon. Also, you can switch your weapons by the press of a button and moving left or right with the pad. The only inconvinient of this feature is that the game doesn't stop (pause) for switch your weapons, making you vulnerable to an enemy attack. Compare that with Thunder Force IV, where you can switch your weapons when the game is paused or not. Treasure forgot that detail on Alien Soldier.
For shoot your weapons you have to options; firing them normally "locking" your character from moving and being able to aim in 8 directions, or fire in one specific direction and being able to moving. To toggle the "weapon lock" you have to press down and A, the color change of Epsilon Eagle from white to brown will confirm the weapon lock change. There's other moves in the game like the "Counter Force", which is your defensive move by tapping the fire button twice. This attack will destroy bullets, turining them into crystals which can be used to regain energy. Replenishing energy is a matter of life or death since this game doesn't have extra lives. It has continues and passwords but i guess it wouldn't hurt anyone if the game had extra lives. So the game could be too difficult if you don't know what to do.
Other moves available in the game are the Zero Teleport which is your dash move, but also the special attack, when your energy is full and flashing your Zero Teleport will turn you into a phoenix that will damage and destroy anything that touches. This dash attack will take a little of your energy, but it's very useful, specially when it's used against a boss.
You can also perform a mid-air hovering and a double jump, which can also be used to walk on the ceiling, yep, sometimes you'll have to fight upside down.
The game is perhaps the ultimate-boss battle fest, if you think Contra Hard Corps had way too much boss fights in a single stage, then Alien Soldier is a record breaking game, 25 levels of boss fights combining styles such as Action, Platformer, Fighting, Run N' Gun and even Shoot-em-up!. One few steps after another you'll fight boss after boss in Spaceports, Futuristic Trains, fighting a boss upside down, Space Elevators, Freefalls, Underwater and even flying in space.
Talking about scenery, sometimes the stage conditions are against you. Examples of this can be found in during the boss battles outside the train where the storm winds will reduce the range of your shots, and being unable to use the Homing and Flame Forces, along with the Zero Teleport "Phoenix dash" attack underwater. All the boss battles requires a pure combination of speed and skills to defeat them, specially the Sirene Force which is perhaps a boss battle that you'll hate the most.
As i said before, the boss battles combines From action to shmup, and so the stages. Some levels you'll be flying in space where the action will be more reminiscent of a Shoot-em-up game in the style of Section Z or Metal Storm, so shmup fans will give Alien Soldier a try.
In graphics terms, most Genesis gamers will think the "Graphics Spectacle" is always found in the Sonic The Hedgehog games, the Thunder Force series and Contra Hard Corps. If that's what you think, then think again. Alien Soldier takes the graphic displays to a higher level, rivalizing the SNES and even the arcade games of the 90's, honestly, this game has a strong arcade feeling when it comes to the graphics. Sega and Treasure weren't joking around with the "Visualshock!", "Speedshock!" and "68000 Heart on Fire" quotes on the engrish text of the title screen, they pushed the Motorola 68000 processor to its limits, that means Alien Soldier makes Contra Hard Corps look like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
As for the sound, when they said "Soundshock!" they mean it. If the gameplay and the graphics were pure arcade style, then the music and sounds fulfills the arcade atmosphere, along with the voice samples, specially the "Ready... Fight!" which adds a better arcade feeling, to put it simple, the sounds will make you think you're playing it on a cabinet and not on a videogame console.
Overall, this game will literally blow up your Genesis. If you're looking for the definitive Genesis game, then look no further. Alien Soldier is the Ultimate 16-bit "Action Variety" game!, the perfect mixture of Action, Run N' Gun, Fighting and Shmup merged in one Supergame.
An absoulte "Must Have" / "Must Play" for Run-N'-Gunners, Shmuppers and Platform enthusiasts.