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Aliens vs Editor By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman If you’re a personal friend of any of the staff, you’ll know that we’re avid pinball fans. In fact, the entire RwN West Team is a bunch of pinball wizards. So naturally you can see our excitement over Alien Crush Returns' announcement and release. Pinball video games are a little strange, in that they really try to achieve all that a physical pinball machine cannot; things such as: intricate ramp networks and alleyways that could never be crafted by any lathe and mill or a vast amount of bumpers in impossible placements littering the playfield. And Alien Crush on the TG-16 and Wii’s Virtual Console is a pretty “typical” pinball video game. Using the ball as a weapon you’re to attack the “living” playfield (which looks like a Giger styled mass of symbiotic aliens), thus racking up the points. While there is only one table available, the board does have quite a bit going on. There’s also numerous “mini-boards” that are scattered throughout the table, from the top half of the alien board itself to the various little “rooms” that are accessed by getting the ball up some tricky ramps. Despite the demonic sci-fi theme, the game stands as a very well made simulator. The ball has some amazingly accurate physics to it, so playing this game is much like playing a real pinball machine with an outlandish layout.
The music is amazing and very appropriate for the game and era it was produced in (spooky sounding late 80’s techno). Though the sound effects are flat explosions and thuds, you’re too busy jamming out to one of the two soundtrack songs to care. We were going to do a comparative review between Alien Crush and Alien Crush Returns, but Alien Crush Returns is far too much of a step up to even have them run head to head. Honestly, the only reason you should consider buying Alien Crush over Alien Crush Returns is if you’re seriously on a budget and can’t afford 200 extra points or for the sake of nostalgia. Otherwise, Alien Crush Returns is a much better buy, hands down. That’s not to say that the original is bad or even mediocre. As I mentioned before it’s an amazing game, but considering what’s available on the same system for $2 more it just can’t compete. Alien Crush Returns (ACR, from here on out) plays nearly identically to the original. However, our favorite living alien pinball table got an amazing 3-D face lift and also brought a few of its friends. The 3-D is absolutely stunning in this game. Its graphics are so visually interesting that I’ll sometimes lose a life/ball watching the table breathe or do some other strangely interesting animation. While I only played on 5 of the 6 boards since getting this game, I must say that they’re all very well designed. Every board carries similar design integrity, yet are varied enough so they’re actually very distinct and distinguishable. The saddest part of the audio-visual presentation was the music. After playing the game for several hours I still can’t tell you how any of the songs sound and as I mentioned in another game article. Music I blank out of my memory must be infinitely worse than music that’s at least catchy enough to get stuck in my head.
However, you’re not playing Alien Crush Returns to rock out, you’re playing it for its pinball goodness and it does not fail to deliver. There’s the standard "play for the highest score," arcade mode. Which is fun to learn the tricks of each board and to leave a demoralizing high score for your friend to try to top on a drunk night. However, this isn’t the mainstay of the game. There are also 2 modes on this game that make it worth so much more than the $8 Hudson is charging you. The first is a story mode with an actual plot (involving space marines in a ball shaped spaceship kamikazing a giant symbiotic alien mothership) in which you try to complete various objectives on each board. So far most I’ve experienced have been “kill the marked baddies.” However, one objective stood out as my pinball video game fantasy, the boss battle. You play on a board with a giant pyramid ramp leading up to a huge marlboro (the tentacle monster in the Final Fantasy games). Using the standard “kill them with the ball tactic” you’re to take out the giant sassy smile. However, this baddie actually fights back; using slime to render your paddles temporarily useless or a tentacle slap move that kills your ball if it connects, the marlboro isn’t going down easily. After your space marines in a ball destroy the onslaught of alien boards in story mode, the next mode you’ll want to check out is online. In online mode you’ll race up to 3 others to rack up 10,000,000 points first. If you’re a fan of: beating your friend’s time trials in Mario Kart, getting beat by random Japanese people, or simply humiliating your online buddies then this is the mode will probably become your mainstay. Of the couple matches I played online, the wait to find other online players was quite a bit (though it could have been due to me playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 DS online while waiting for a match). However, unlike Bomberman Blast’s online play, you can actually play through a few matches without the fear of being kicked. The online score race adds some white knuckle excitement to the game, even though it wasn’t what I was hoping the mode would be (I was honestly wishing for some cool co-op mode, but the race is great too).
All in all, I highly suggest this game. Fan of pinball? Get it! Love Alien Crush for TG-16? Get it! Looking for the most bang for your 800 wii points? Get it! Just looking for a new game to try and have no clue what’s hot? For gawd sakes, just get the damn game!
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