Alien³ (Genesis) Playthrough

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Published on September 22, 2022 4:01:25 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8KG1QFPfkQ

Game:

Alien 3 (1992)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 59:46

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A playthrough of Acclaim's 1992 licensed-based shooter for the Sega Genesis, Alien 3.

Played through on the normal difficulty setting.

Releasing just five months after the film's theatrical debut, Probe's Alien 3 for the Sega Genesis was the first of a glut of games to be loosely based on Ripley's adventures on the prison planet of Fiorina 161.

The movie featured just a single alien, so the Alien 3 games tended to lean into the action-trappings of Aliens. The game takes place entirely within the confines of the prison complex, and each of the fifteen stages is a maze of tunnels and ladders that Ripley must explore in order to rescue the prisoners.

These areas are teeming with xenomorphs that strike with little warning and hit hard, but Ripley's battery-powered motion tracker can help to anticipate ambushes, and she also carries some formidable fire power. She can freely switch between grenades, a grenade launcher, a pulse rifle, and a flamethrower, and though they all require ammo to use, refill items are scattered everywhere throughout the areas.

Every few stages, Ripley will have to face off against a boss - the queen from Aliens - before she can move on to the next area of the prison, and the game ends once she defeats the pair of queens that lie in wait in the steel foundry.

Alien 3 is surprisingly competent for a licensed game of its ilk. Its unique blending of the Euro-style collect-a-thon platformer with the run-and-gun shooter works out fairly well. The areas are large and filled with caches of items buried in out-of-the-way nooks, and the gun play feels good.

The only real downer is the time limit. It's nowhere near the hindrance it was in the NES version (https://youtu.be/1KrBx2Faa6c), but it can still be frustrating when you run out of time as you're trying to explore a new area. You do learn the layouts with repeated plays, though, and once you're familiar with the locations of the prisoners and exits, the game becomes pretty easy to breeze through.

Alien 3 looks great for a 1992 Genesis title. Each area has its own distinct look and feel, and the heavy use of parallax scrolling effects and fun environmental flourishes (I especially liked the gore-spilling oxen hanging from the pipes!) keep the game's visuals interesting throughout. The large, detailed sprites move smoothly and closely resemble their movie counterparts, and they mesh well with the backdrops.

The soundtrack is a bit less cut-and-dry. Matt Furniss's soundtrack is fantastic - I'd even argue that the music is better than Jeroen Tel's top-notch work for the NES version - but it often feels completely out of place. Every song is a toe tapper, but the rock and techno tracks don't evoke the ambient horror vibe you'd expect from a game based on an Alien movie.

The sound effects are on-point, though. Ripley's grunts, the alien screeches, the pew-pew of the pulse rifle, and the satisfyingly heavy thwonk of the grenade launcher are all immediately recognizable and suit the game perfectly.

The movie might not have lived up to expectations, but Alien 3 for the Genesis is a fun and stylish action game that would've made for an ideal weekend rental.

(It's probably also the best Sega Genesis game to star a bald woman battling suggestively-shaped enemies slathered in KY Jelly... y'know, if that's your thing.)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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