We can hear it clearly: "Visualshock! Speedshock! Soundshock! Now is time to the 68000 heart on fire!"
It's the rule that any Alien Soldier discussion has to quote that barrage of gibberish from the Japanese title screen, sadly cut from the European version (but at least we got a version, unlike America).
Any '90s player familiar with Gunstar Heroes would expect serious gunnage, a boss every two minutes and a hearty splash of madness from subsequent games by developer Treasure. Alien Soldier was happy to uphold that mission statement.
The new protagonist was bird-headed ex-terrorist space mutant Epsilon-Eagle, hunting down his nemesis Xi-Tiger. No sign of Alpha-Newt or Omicron-Cow, and best not to examine the storyline in detail lest your synapses pop.
Epsilon could also teleport across the screen and walk on the ceiling. Wouldn't that have made designing the game needlessly complicated? Probably. But Treasure, then as now, are HARD NUTS who DON'T CARE. They also crotch-punched convention by making the game a long chain of boss fights broken up by quickie scrolling interludes.
Boss action erupted in sewers, trains, giant webs, space, storms, freefall - and ammo for Epsilon's arsenal was limited. Still, there was always Supereasy mode with passwords and continues if you didn't fancy Superhard, the only other option.
Arriving late in the 16-bit era, Alien Soldier was a finely-tuned audiovisual champ well deserving of a modern rematch if sprite carnage interests you.
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