Alien Syndrome (Wii) Review

Alien Syndrome is one of the many “rebirths” of classic franchises of late, released solely for the PSP and Nintendo Wii. With the newly revived Ninja Gaiden franchise, as well as the future Turok revival, we can’t help but be excited to learn that SEGA’s original 1987 hit, Alien Syndrome, is being revived for the Nintendo Wii and Sony PSP. However, with a title like Alien Syndrome, we aren’t met with really anything that matches it’s video gaming pedigree and instead, we are left with a hulking mass of unplayability. There’s a saying used to describe games that goes “Leave your brain at the door”, but with Alien Syndrome, it’s probably safe to heed that warning.

First, the story of the game. Alien Syndrome transposes the storyline of the first game 100 years later, into a futuristic locale in space, complete with Aliens as well as women clad in tight fitting leather suits and harbouring big guns. Apparently, in the world in which Alien Syndrome is set in, “interplanetary space travel” is possible and as such there have been some serious problems that have arisen from this development. On a space station on a distant planet, communications is lost with the team situated, and the games protagonist is sent to investigate. Instead, she finds herself in danger of being destroyed by the “Alien Syndrome”, a mysterious force apparently behind the disappearance of the crew. The game starts here, with Aileen realising she must do something about this. The story definitely isn’t anything to rave about, much like the whole game, mind you the story isn’t “meant to be cheesy” either.

The game, once opening it up, offers the player the choice to play either by themselves or with friends, as well as offering a basic tutorial level designed to get the player adjusted with the controls as well as the (almost pointless) premise of the game. Additionally you are able to adjust all settings to your desire, though there once again isn’t a great amount of settings to play with either (a shame since a “Turn Good On” setting would have worked wonders for this game). The credits can also be viewed, should you want to know who is responsible for your loss of sight and hearing, and thank them appropriately. Alien Syndrome does offer 4 player simultaneous co-op should you want to suffer with your friends (after all, misery DOES love company).

When you actually get into the game itself, it is essentially a mundane arcade shooter. Controls are quite simple, with movement being assigned to the control stick on the Nunchuck and aiming and shooting being assigned to the WiiMote itself. The WiiMote is used to change the direction in which your character is aiming, with B being the primary weapon and A being used for secondary weapons. Melee attacks are mapped to the B button and various gestures with the Wiimote. Unfortunately the motion based controls are poorly implemented and as such there is noticeable lag between your own movements and your character’s. All that aside, the aiming and shooting is very well done and makes the game somewhat more interesting than the PSP version, effectively allowing your character to shoot in one direction and move in another.

The gameplay itself in Alien Syndrome is somewhat shallow. Players can choose the class of their character, and upgrade them as they play. This adds an RPG element, as well as weapon management through a mobile shop known only as SCARAB. Unfortunately this class system does not add any depth to the game, since most of the weapons do not feel unique at all. Item management plays a key part in the levelling up of your character, in that you can choose to convert your own items into currency to spend on upgrades to your character, should you need to free up space in your inventory for ammo etc. The upgrade system is somewhat mundane in that there is no need to upgrade more than one weapon, as choosing each class starts you off with an already upgraded weapon anyway. To put it simply why waste time upgrading your Level 1 Pistol when you can just spend the upgrades on your Level 3 machine gun?

The objectives players are faced with in the game are pretty simple, and involve archetypical “Go to Point A, and unlock Point B with the key you obtained at Point A”. Usually between Point A and Point B you are bombarded with several monotonous enemies. The main problems arise from the fact that not only is the gameplay in Alien Syndrome monotonous, but the more powerful enemies are not even powerful – they just have more health. This doesn’t make them any harder but rather makes them tedious to kill – prompting many players to avoid them. The problem comes in the fact that none of the enemies provide a particularly challenging play experience, and can be defeated easily thanks to the versatility of the Wii controls and the ability to move and shoot in two different directions. The game also seems to “forget” that it has spawned enemies into the map, and as such it is easy to outrun the enemies until they disappear, eliminating any potential challenge.

Admittedly, the multiplayer support in this game is it’s saving grace, as it does bear some more fun than the game itself by yourself, but by no means does it make it a worthy purchase. Although the game can be fun for those who enjoy the classic Smash TV style arcade action style titles. The game is by no means worthwhile to play through by yourself, but having friends around in order to take the mickey out of the game (as I did) makes it much more enjoyable.

Visually the game doesn’t hold up very well. Being a game released on a PSP, it’s safe to say that it actually looks better on the PSP than the Wii, which is simply inexcusable considering the hardware is much more powerful (see Umbrella Chronicles or Mario Galaxy). The framerate is a slow 50fps during gameplay and the menus aren’t that appealing to look at either, using a generic boring font. In all honesty the game has graphics comparable to that of a Nokia N-Gage. They simply don’t look good. Enemies are terribly generic looking, taking the form of blobs that appear in different shapes and sizes (with some blobs having legs =O) as well as the characters themselves, which don’t look anything like their hand drawn portraits. The art design and direction in Alien Syndrome is definitely nothing worth writing home about, possessing neither anything worthwhile or pleasing to the eye.

The audio in the game is also painful. The music in the game is low par, and the sound effects lack any real “feeling”. The weapons you are firing simply don’t feel powerful by the noises portrayed. Furthermore, the sound that plays when you run out of ammo is painstakingly awful to listen to, and with the hectic and intense nature of the game, this sound is played ALOT much to the resentment of those playing.

Unfortunately, Alien Syndrome feels more like a title that was initially developed for the PSP, and then smoothed up and the Wii remote controls thrown in. Perhaps if some more budget were to go into it, so that the art style became more refined and the graphics revamped, the game could stand on it’s own in the Wii library without being compared to it’s PSP counterpart. To put it simply – there is just no variety in the game and that is what effectively “kills” the mood of the game and makes it dull and monotonous. To put it simply, Alien Syndrome is potentially somewhat fun arcade shooter marred by it’s lack of variety and atmosphere

Graphics 4.0

Gameplay 6.0

Sound 5.0

Tilt 5.0

Value 5.0