Released: October 1992
Developer: Probe Software
Also Available For: Amiga, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

A Brief Background:
Over the years, the Alien franchise (Various, 1979 to present) has had a long and complicated history with videogame adaptations; from pixelated garbage to first-person shooters, real-time strategies and crossover titles, to survival/horror experiences. Just as director James Cameron more than met the challenge of following up on Ridley Scott’s financially successful and highly influential Alien (ibid, 1976), so too did Konami produce a popular arcade port of Aliens (Cameron, 1984) that is widely regarded as one of the best games in the franchise. Unfortunately, Konami lost the Aliens license by the time the divisive third film hit cinemas; fraught with production issues, delays, and script troubles, Alien³ (Fincher, 1992) might not have been as critically or commercially successful as its predecessors, but in time it became a cult favourite for many fans and it spawned two videogame adaptations: this multi-platform run-and-gun adventure and an arcade-exclusive rail shooter the following year. Unlike its contentious source material, Alien³ was quite well received at the time; reviews praised the presentation and fidelity to the movie, as well as its arcade-style gameplay though some did struggle with the troublesome controls and music.

First Impressions:
At first glance, Alien³ seems to share many similarities with the Aliens (Konami, 1990) arcade game; the visuals, especially the sprites, onscreen text, and environments, are strikingly similar and Ripley even wields many of the weapons featured in that game. However, the moment you actually start playing the game, you realise that it’s an entirely different beast, one that has a bit of an identity crisis. For starters, as mentioned, Ripley is armed to the teeth; she’s got the iconic Aliens pulse rifle, a flamethrower, a grenade launcher, and regular grenades, making her decidedly more formidable than she was in the source material, where the entire point was that she and the inmates had to come up with out the box solutions to deal with the resident Xenomorph. Secondly, and most crucially, the game isn’t just a mindless run-and-gun; instead, you’re given a strict time limit to complete a specific objective in each stage and reach the exit, and the game’s locations take on a far less linear, much more labyrinthine structure that closely mirrors the panic and claustrophobia of the movie. Ripley is tasked with rescuing inmates and destroying the Xenomorph infestation, objectives that are somewhat aided by the onscreen Aliens-style motion tracker and the various vents and ladders that help her to get around each location.

Alien³ utilises a simple control scheme, but one I had to shuffle about a bit; by default, A switches your weapon, B jumps, and C fires, but I swapped fire to A and switch to C as that was more comfortable for me. You can pick between one and nine continues, but these are actually how many lives you have, and whether you want to play on Easy, Normal, or Hard mode. I chose nine lives and the Easy difficulty and still found the game to be quite challenging; the timer is a constant headache, meaning you need a lot of trial and error to find the optimal route around each stage, something that is hampered by dead ends, hazards (such as fans and my pet hate, fall damage), and the Xenomorphs. Aliens will crawl out of the ground and along the ceilings and walls, dropping on you and charging at you, though you thankfully don’t have to worry about them constantly respawning or acid damage. Later, Facehuggers apparently also show up and you have to shake them off with the directional pad, though I never saw any in my playthrough. You’ll occasionally have to make some blind jumps to avoid slippery slopes or make use of moving platforms to reach new areas, as well as activating consoles to open doors (or simply blowing them open with a grenade). If you fail to rescue all of the prisoners in time, a gory scene plays out showing them, and Ripley, succumbing to their Chestbursters, and you’ll have to replay the entire stage from the start all over again, which is a real pain in the ass.

My Progression:
As I said, Alien³ has a bit of an identity crisis. Judging by Ripley’s weaponry and the way the Aliens are presented, it seems like the developers wanted to make something more akin to the action-orientated Aliens but were stuck adapting the most recent movie. The game impresses quite well with its arcade-style graphics; Fury 161 is recreated nicely, including a wasteland up top and different layers within, and Ripley has a basic alternative pose when left idle. Each stage is preceded by a drooling Alien face and the music is quite jaunty, which is at odds with the bleak source material but helps keep you engaged in the action. Sadly, the gameplay and steep difficulty curve are where Alien³ falls apart; the time limit is way too tight and health and ammo pickups are so scarce that it’s a chore just getting through even the first stage. I was just about able to tank my way through to the third stage, where the layout just became too confusing to continue and I was forced to quit.

This wouldn’t be a problem if Alien³ incorporated a password system, but it doesn’t; there are cheats out there, but I couldn’t get any of them to work so I’m not sure if I’ll ever progress further into the game, especially as you can’t seem to earn extra lives or continues. Looking ahead, the game sees Ripley venturing into the blood-stained medical wing, a cargo area and butchery also feature, and the game even includes an Alien nest that is, again, visually ripped straight out of Aliens. Xenomorph eggs pop out Facehuggers, slime drools from above, and various ridge-headed versions of the Xenomorph act as “Level Guardians”, spitting acid, jumping about the place, making use of higher platforms, and players will need to fend off two at once in a large industrial area in order to get their final score tally and earn the extremely lacklustre text ending in with Ripley simply leaves the prison without any repercussions. I’m surprised that the developers resisted the urge to have Ripley fight an Alien Queen, as is often standard for Alien videogames, though these boss battles seem to increase in difficulty simply because the area you battle them in increases in size, giving them more places to hide and surprise you with some acid projectiles from behind the prominent foreground images.

Alien³ is a  strange entry in the franchise to adapt into a videogame, and it seems like the developers shared this philosophy; there’s a reason why the game has more in common, in terms of action and gameplay, with the Aliens arcade game than the actual movie on which it’s based and that’s the fact that Alien³  would work much better as a point-and-click adventure or a survival-horror style title, two genres that probably wouldn’t have been successful at the time or on the Mega Drive. It’s not a bad game, really, it’s just the difficulty curve is way too steep; either the game needed a password system or the timer needed to go, but without either it’s a real test of your skill and patience to get anywhere beyond the first few stages. I liked the level of detail, even though things were a bit stiff and janky at times (Ripley sometimes struggled to go down ladders), and the use of gore when you inevitably mess up. The lack of enemy variety was a bit of an issue, though; Alien games, especially  around this time, tended to go a bit bonkers with Alien variants but Alien³ plays things way too safe. In the end, it was a largely forgettable and disappointing experience for me, especially as it could’ve been so much more if the Aliens arcade game had simply been ported instead. Still, maybe I just suck; maybe you actually really enjoyed this game. Maybe you had no issue rescuing all the prisoners and navigating the maze-like levels. Or, maybe, you prefer a different Alien³  videogame, or a different Alien game entirely. Whatever your thoughts and feedback, feel free to drop a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Alien content on the site.