Welcome Time Wasters!
This week I pulled myself away from my phone (which was harder than it sounds, Puzzle & Dragons is really addicting) and searched the internet for a suitable time waster. After a short jog through the internet I stumbled across Alien Splatter.
Alien Splatter is a side-scrolling shooter that goes for that retro NES feel. The game even has a disclaimer before the title screen warning players that it’s ‘Nintendo Hard’ and that those who can’t handle should play something from the current generation of games. I can back up this statement. I found myself dying more times than I’d ever like to admit and I even had to walk away from my computer once or twice to take a break.
Gameplay in Alien Splatter is similar to side-scrolling shooters from the NES era, specifically Contra. Players will control a character as he runs, jumps and shoots his way through multiple levels in order to clear the world from an alien invasion. Players move the hero with the arrow keys and can jump and shoot with the S and A keys. The controls in Alien Splatter are really tight, which made it so that I knew it was my fault when I died.
The game allows players to switch to different weapons that can be found lying around. Each weapon has a limited number of ammo, but more ammo can be picked up. Unlike in Contra, where weapons are picked up as soon as the player touch them, weapons in Alien Splatter are only picked up if the player crouches near them. I enjoyed this difference as I kept me from switching from weapons I really like to ones I hate.
Also different from Contra is Alien Splatter’s health system. In Contra, a player dies as soon as their character is hit by just about anything. In Alien Splatter, players actually have a health bar. The health bar looks very much like the one used in Ninja Gaiden and it allows players to take multiple hits. Players can also find more health lying around. While this does take away from the extreme difficulties found in NES games, it doesn’t mean that Alien Splatter is an easy game.
Graphics in Alien Splatter are a perfect example of how to copy the NES style. The creator of the game even went so far as to limit himself to the NES’ palette. The characters aren’t overly detailed and neither are the environments. Normally this is a bad thing, but normally people aren’t trying to emulate the design of an NES game. That being said, this game does a great job of capturing the NES look.
The audio found in Alien Splatter is in the same boat as the graphics. Sound effects found throughout the game are spot on for an NES title and they give the game the right type of atmosphere. The music in the game is the same. Right from the start I felt like the tunes were something from my childhood, even though I’d never heard them before.
Alien Splatter is a great game and an even better replica of an era of gaming long gone. The game doesn’t have much going for it in the way of originality, but it has loads of NES magic. I do have one small complaint. It seems like every time I play one of these game that is trying to capture that retro feel, they all just go with a mediocre story. I want to play something that looks, feels and sounds like a classic NES game, but brings a new, original story to the table. Maybe I’m asking for too much, but I’m sure someone out there can do it.
Alien Splatter earns 4 GiN Gems out of 5 from this retro-loving reviewer.