Xenophobe - Arcade

The crazy split screen... It's only going to get worse.

I imagine a meeting at Midway's office.

"Yes, let's ride the success of Aliens (the film) the idea of huge monsters that kill humans very easily and very rapidly running around space stations and planets, nomming down people like candy and causing something to burst from their chests in that odd parody of pregnancy and birth that results in the vasectomy rate going up each time this film comes on for some reason. Let's take that idea, not buy the actual license (Because Konami has it anyway) and make a game that is basically a big send up of the original material."

Game over? I'm FREE! YES!!!

"However, lets royally fuck up the control system and make it as awkward as hell, unplayable by those casual gamers (you know the ones I mean, people that have never played before and expect arcade games to be intuitive and easy to use while real skill comes from experience) and overwhelm people with this abysmal mess and scare them off because we've already got their credits so what the hell do we care after that."

And they were applauded and given a raise and they made this game.

The controls... The horror... But all because of the controls.

I'm not being entirely fair though. So let me break this stuff down.

In what is supposed to be a 3-player game, Xenophobe can allow up to 3 players to play through the game at once. Each one can wander the space-station corridors, meet up and play together or go solo through the space station in search of the key components to beat the mission. Or play until time runs out and the place blows up. Your main mission being to kill every single alien in the space station before the self-destruct kicks in.

So I'm an alien, fighting other aliens, in a game titled "fear of aliens"...

That being said, the levels wrap around themselves so if you keep heading in one direction you'll end up back where you started, but the aliens can move around too. There's multiple weapons to find and keep for yourself in which you can use to kill the aliens from different guns like the laser, gas and lightning, as well as grenades but you're more likely to blow yourself up with those and the aliens tend to attack from most places. Creeping little critters that look like shelled face-huggers, mid aliens that crawl and pounce, big aliens that spit acid and use their mass to attack and other undesirables along the way.

Sadly, you never blow up on ship, you get teleported out. So you can suffer some more.

The biggest problem in the game is the completely unintuitive control system. You've an attack button, and two actions buttons. One used for getting up and jumping and interacting with the backgrounds, the other for crouching, throwing off enemies, picking up objects and throwing grenades. That's right, one button crouches, the other jumps. At times it's simply easier to just crouch, let the aliens come to you and blast as many as you can before the timer runs out in Xenophobe. Speaking of which, if you find switches and buttons, you can find out how many aliens are left and how much time is left before it all blows up. Usually around 100 or so are in most levels, more in the later ones but with the controls how they are, players aren't going to be keen to find out.

Forget the timer, where's the "Blow it the fuck up now!" button?

Add to this an ever diminishing health count and unfair attacks from monsters you simply cannot avoid and monsters that can shrug off damage JUST to hit you (seemingly, but almost always happens) and you end up with an largely unplayable mess that most players will blunder their way through until they get bored or their credit runs out of health. Usually the former. Steer clear of this chaotic mess of a game.

Jurassic Park - Arcade '93

Welcome... To Jurassic Park...

Brought out to coincide with the release of the groundbreaking film, Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park (SEGA) is an on-rails shooter that capitalises upon several things. Namely that you get to see large parts of the film, you get to shoot dinosaurs and several other things too, and you get to replay that bit in the film where the T-Rex chases the jeep... Several times.

Faster, must go faster!

The plot in Jurassic Park, for want of one as it stands, is simple enough. You're driving through Jurassic Park with your infinite ammo, never overheating, machinegun(s) and you get to see the lovely tour of what is most of the island and key locations from the film. You'll be sped quickly through jungles, overgrowth, ripped up fences, fields of lush emptiness and even through the main compound including the front door and beyond as you try to survive the journey with your vehicle still intact.

They're flocking this way!

Your health bar seems to be a mix of your own body and the vehicle, but either way if one is stopped then your forage through Jurassic Park is over anyway. Your large gun is mounted to the dashboard of the large car/cabinet and you're presented with a nice attempt at having something tangible around you while playing the game. You can find health packs through the game but almost certainly just after you've pumped in another credit and they become redundant to your situation.

We clocked the T-Rex at 32 miles per hour.

As a game, it's short. The speed at which you're racing through the levels, combined with the fact that you'll be assault virtually the entire time you're in Jurassic Park, means you'll either burn through the credits quickly or you'll be done with the game inside of 20 minutes. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's a fun experience and doesn't overstay its welcome but you will most likely have spent a considerable amount of money to get that far and it won't feel worth its value.

...Clever Girl

Graphically, Jurassic Park is using the same core as Alien 3: The Gun and Out runners, though there's been a significant overhaul in the detail of the game compared to Alien 3, the dinosaurs look impressive from the T-Rex as it chases you along the road and through the overgrowth to Raptors leaping at you from all angles, pterodactyls dive bombing you in series of waves, even up to and including racing along a Brontosaurs' back, off its head and later meeting one that (in due homage to the film) sneezes on you and blows you over a cliff. Everything looks quite impressive but what's even more impressive is the fact that the game is fast and you really do get a sense of urgency when on the run from the larger creatures.

When the Pirates of the Carribean ride breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists!

As for the sounds, Jurassic Park's music is usually fast paced, action enhancing and fairly fitting to Jurassic Park but you won't be finding the famous score in this game. After the second time you face off against the T-Rex, you'll be dreading the starting bars of each subsequent battle with them as they tend to do a lot of damage and the music is very distinct from the other pieces composed for this game.

We spared no expense.

Overall, Jurassic Park is an attempt to cash in on the franchise and it's done fairly well but the game is too tough and too greedy for the credits which invariable leaves plays with a cheap rewarding thrill but a bad taste in their mouth afterwards. Not unlike time spent with your mu- [Article End]

In The Hunt - Arcade

For Octobers of Redness?

While some might compare In The Hunt to the film, Hunt For The Red October, it probably isn't too far of a stretch to say that one has inspired the other but thankfully in this game, there's no Sean Connery playing a Russian Submarine commander with a Scottish accent. Scratch that, a Sean Connery accent. However the game is entirely about you BEING a submarine commander and you're taking on more sub-acquatic forces than the world actually has, three to four times over. But then it'd be boring if we just played Cold War and nobody really did anything other than promise to use and not quite use nukes on each other.

Bombs, torps, missiles, mines, icebergs... All are nasty threats here

In The Hunt shows that once again, Metal Slug has been borrowing heavily from its former employers and co-workers. It's Irem's sub acquatic baby and you can clearly see the high level of graphical detail that in later Metal Slug games might as well have taken lock, stock and barrel. Though rather than just be one level, or part of a level using a submarine, the entire game is you using a submarine to blow up boats, ships, subs, underwater tanks, helicopters, planes and jets (no those last few are not underwater, but that would be impressive nonetheless).

Sunken Stadium, a rather unique choice for a level backdrop.

Combat as such in In The Hunt, takes place in the 2D horizontal planar and has a slower moving spaceship... Submarine, that steadily cruises through the waters to fire torpedos, launch depth charges and underwater to surface missiles. The game does mix up convention in that if you are to breach the surface, your missiles now become anti-aircraft weaponry and function differently in that they can assault the skies and not blow up when they reach the surface.

This game has bosses galore, but it does limit itself in having to theme everything around an aquatic approach

Graphically, the game looks gorgeous as one might expect from the team that later started to make Metal Slug and as such In The Hunt sports some deliciously detailed and smoothly animated effects that serve as a real treat to the arcade gamer, espcially in a time period when the first few 3D games were coming out along the lines of the hardware firepower of the Playstation. There's attention, detail, precision and a lot of focus on making the game look amazing from the icey waters around icebergs, to the industrial sites and sunken cities, everything is gobsmackingly stunning and may at times catch the player out if they spend too long admiring the backgrounds and little details.

Erm... Ok... Moving along.

In that sense, In The Hunt is rather like one of those Naked Gun films in that you have to watch it time and time again to make sure you get all the jokes and the details. While there's not much in the way of jokes in In The Hunt (until you reach level 5, then it just becomes weird), there's so much going on that you could easily play through a few times and notice something different each time.

It doesn't take long before the boss level becomes "unfair"

The sound in In The Hunt does suffer somewhat in that the music just feels very out of place, it doesn't quite hold the adrenaline rush that you'd hope from a frantic boss fight, nor does the levels seem to fit with the tune and composition of the music set and associated with each particular level, it's quite the shame but thankfully a lot of it is masked with the copious amounts of explosions and attacks going on that you'll barely register the issue if at all.

All things said, In The Hunt is a hard game, if only because your movement is fairly limited and restricted in that you're slow, weapons are fast, and the eternally scrolling levels can force you into moments you'd rather not be in. It's an entertaining and fun game that will take you a good hour or so to beat but the likelihood is that you'd rather not blow all those credits on it. Well worth a play however and another glimpse at the history behind Metal Slug.