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Alien Hominid

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Developer: The Behemoth
Publisher: The Behemoth
Genre: Action > General
Released: Oct 14, 2004
Players: 2

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- Alien Hominid Review

- Jaded Reviewers

- IGF - 2005 - Day 1

- Interview with Alien Hominid developers John Baez, Tom Fulp, and Dan Paladin

- 2004 Best Graphics in an Indie Game of the Year Award

Alien Hominid is clearly one of the most ambitious indie titles ever made. How many other indie titles are available on the major gaming consoles? I cannot think of any! What Alien Hominid really represents is the future of indie games in many respects. Getting indie games out to a wider audience, specifically the console audience, is something that indie developers have been salivating over for some time. With the release of Alien Hominid, some of that vision is starting to be met. The Xbox live service is another foray into the console market that indie developers have used in the last year, making the dream of indie games on home consoles ever more of a reality.

In both cases one of the key things that indie games have had to do to compete with console games, is to improve the polish. While indie games are known for their innovation, they don't often have the same polish when it comes to the game's menus, sounds, graphics and cut screens. Alien Hominid hits each of those areas hard with such high quality that it sets a very high bar for other indie companies to reach for.

In Alien Hominid you control an alien whose ship was shot down by the FBI. Your one goal is to get the ship back and leave...well that and, of course, destroying everything in your path. The game proceeds pretty much as a straight forward Rolling Thunder/Metal Slug - esque side scrolling 2D shooter where you control a single character (though there is also a co-operative mode in the game for 2 people to join forces) and blast your way through the levels and obstacles in front of you, using a variety of different weapons that nicely enough are occasionally provided, and different vehicles, such as tanks, that may have been left un-guarded.

In addition to the basic level types, there are also flying levels where you control your space craft and shoot down the enemies. The control scheme on those levels is quite different and takes a little getting used to, but is one of the better control schemes I've used with a ship providing chances to really attack realistically at every angle and feel some physics feedback without it being overwhelming.

The game also features a host of mini-games that are fun for a minute or two if you get time to play them with a friend. Of special interest are the PDA games that let you play 4 people through a series of levels that look crudely drawn but are actually quite a bit of fun, in fact I would say if you don't check out the PDA games you are missing out on one of the cooler points of Alien Hominid.

Graphics: 9/10

You'll be hard pressed to find a better looking game than Alien Hominid. The characters have been carefully drawn to provide a lot of emotive actions on the screen. With each of the different weapons, the enemies who are hit will suffer a different dying animation (often multiple animations exist for each gun). These different animations are a big part of the game's draw. Flaming an enemy with the flame-thrower will cause them to turn into ash and crumble much like a Wiley Coyote cartoon, or run across the screen on fire. The ice gun may cause enemies to become frozen solid and after a short time they shatter in many shards of ice. Throughout the game the graphics show the same inventiveness as the many different animated deaths. There is a lot of humor and intrigue that can be found by just watching what happens on the screen if you can take your eyes away from the action to see how what you just destroyed looks like as it is being destroyed. The backgrounds are large and inviting, and the cartoon style throughout the different levels creates an atmosphere that is quite unlike most other games you'll find on the market. The only knock I had against the graphics comes from a game play point. Often you'll find yourself getting killed without realizing what exactly hit you. This is because of the many explosions on the screen working with bullets from your own weapons to cover up enemy bullets. This perhaps could have been avoided by making the bullets show up on top of the explosions and in a negative color of whatever they are on top of, or by having an option to do this).

Sound 8/10
The intro sound that plays when you first start the game up is a great little music bit that unfortunately is the most catchy tune in the game. The in-game music is certainly high quality, but not anything you're likely to remember after you turn the game off. The sound effects are top notch, with a great number of sounds that will likely be running through your head for weeks. Overall the sound is solid, though some catchier tunes would have made it fantastic.

Game Play: 7/10

The game play is an area where I ran into a few problems. I played this game a bit after getting my copy and found it to be just TOO difficult. I decided that perhaps it was just my poor abilities, so I brought over someone who is a much better gamer than I and played the co-operative mode for a bit with them and their thought was that it was TOO difficult to be fun and after playing the game a bit longer than we would have if I wasn't writing a review of it, we moved on to greener pastures. I returned to the game later and found the option to turn down the difficulty to the �€˜easy�€™ level and pushed my way on through the last level of the game. Doing so I found the game to be much more enjoyable, and I would strongly recommend that you immediately TURN DOWN THE DIFFICULTY upon trying out the game as it makes a world of difference. I've since talked to several people who've played the game and each of their thoughts was the same, looks cool, way too hard. I think the number one issue behind the difficulty is the problems with seeing enemy bullets as mentioned previously. To really feel like you are playing the game, you want to feel like you are in control of your character and that your death comes from a mistake on your part. It is quite frustrating to players when their death occurs and they don't have any idea why. Again the easy level takes care of that problem to a great degree, but I was still left with the feeling that I wasn't quite connected to my character on the screen. Much like the classic Contra, this is a game that is MUCH more enjoyable when you don't have to think about your lives. The developers have helped in that regard by reviving the classic code used in Contra!! Here too it will also give each player 30 lives! Ah the joys of up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. Using that classic code, much like in Contra, takes a game that is cool, but difficult, and makes it much more enjoyable. In fact, if you use the code I�€™d pump up the game play score a notch.

Value: 9/10
At $19.99 you will likely find AH in the bargain bin at a lot of stores. I think the name of the bin is a good description of the game at that price. It really is a bargain! The game is worth more than a rental due to some of the pieces in the game play that give the game a life beyond the first play through. In fact, getting the finer points of some of the moves down will take you a good while and since the game gets better the better you are at it, I think you'll find you'll enjoy it more if you own it.

Concept: 7/10
This game is often compared to Viewtiful Joe as, at first glance, they have somewhat similar graphic styles. However that is really a disservice to both games as they are quite different, and when it comes to an innovative style of game play, VJ is much more focused on pushing the limits than AH. Still AH does have some interesting things in it: the vehicles are well thought out, and the different end bosses also will push your cognitive abilities a bit to figure out how to kill them. The levels where you fly your ship are a little easier than the other levels in the game as you can just run away from everyone for the most part and let your missiles take people out without having to fight them, but the change of pace is really quite interesting. Overall though, the innovation in this game isn't really beyond what you see in most games of this type.

Fun 8/10

Without the cheat codes, Contra was a frustrating game. I bought it the day it game out and was playing for a month with all my friends, always getting frustrated, until the code came out, then something magical happened, it became a lot more fun, a game that EVERYONE remembers. The fun score on this game really depended for me on the difficulty, with the code and on a lower difficulty level, I would score it above and 8, without those things I'd put it below an 8.

One disappointment I had was in regards to the cooperative mode. Unfortunately, with two people on the screen the issue of getting hit by bullets that seem to have appeared out of no where is amplified making the game actually more difficult in 2-player mode than going solo. The different vehicles are certainly fun, my favorite being the Yeti, but overall the game left me thinking I would have enjoyed playing one of the Metal Slug games more. (Though I have to admit that once I found I could jump in the air and fire downwards to keep myself pseudo-floating through the air I found myself doing that quite a bit, even when there wasn't any point to doing so other than just having fun) The extra moves in the game and depth of game play that those moves provide, such as the one just mentioned or burrowing underground, reaching up and grabbing people as they pass by and pulling them down to their deaths, provide an added aspect to the game play that means in the long-run there are a lot more reasons to keep playing AH, and I'm sure you'll find yourself wanting to return to it more than to a game of Metal Slug, which is more of a once and done game.

Overall 8/10
With gorgeous graphics Alien Hominid is definitely a game that struts its stuff. The comical nature of the game and fun of controlling a little alien with a fair number of cool moves up his sleeve is certainly enjoyable enough to warrant checking out a copy of this game, and at such a low price it should be an easy addition to most gamer's libraries.

By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Saturday August 20, 2005