Alien Hominid Xbox Review

Alien Hominid? What the hell is an Alien Hominid you may ask! It may not be one of the most talked about titles at the moment. It is not on the tip of every gamers tongue, and not a lot of people may have heard of it nor have it near the top of their “must buy” lists, but those that have heard of it during the three years since it’s birth as a Macromedia Flash-based game (which has been downloaded approximately six million times since it release back in 2002) will know it is a very impressive little title indeed.

Gameplay

Alien Hominid plays like a slightly upgraded version of the traditional 2D games that were all the rage less than ten years ago but now seem more and more like a dying breed in this day and age. The action in Alien Hominid is fast and unrelenting. At times the game can even be too fast which will cause you inadvertently to bump into enemies and clash with the projectiles they toss your way giving you no chance to get out of the way. The old school way of memorizing patterns to advance is implemented to great effect in Alien Hominid (especially during the boss battles) which thus leads to some trial and error type gameplay. Gladly due to the fast paced style of the game this style of gameplay does not get boring or annoying. That “one more go” feeling should stick with you until you reach the end of the game.

Graphics

While Alien Hominid is not that technically impressive of a game, compared to some of the recent top selling titles on the Xbox the art style it uses certainly helps it stand out from the rest. It is like comparing Shrek to the Simpsons; while both are very different it does not necessarily mean that either of them are bad. The lead artist of Alien Hominid is the very skillful Dan Paladin. He has created some very impressive ultra violent but never the less cute hand drawn characters and environments for the player to mess about in. The animation of the characters may not be that great but that doesn’t really matter as the screen is always chock-a-block with detail, action and its own distinctive style of fun loving personality.

Sound

Alien Hominid is home to some extremely catchy tunes, even rivaling some of the classic Mario Bros tunes in terms of “humabaility” when you are not playing the game . They really do stick in your head and I guarantee you will be whistling or humming at least one of them after you complete the game. There is however a distinct lack of sound-effects for some events in the game, which was probably a deliberate omission by the developers as there is so much happening at the one time, if each were given a sound effect the audio would seem very cluttered.

Lifespan

Alien Hominid is home to fifteen varied levels, which in turn means you will have to face fifteen varied bosses, each with their own distinct style. The normal game features both signal and co-op play. Co-op instantly improves the replayabitly of the game as you can play it an infinite number of times with all of your different mates, experiencing the game once again through their eyes and seeing how they react to it. There are also mini games that can be unlocked which are fun in short burst, then there are a couple of “PDA games” and even a level editor included. It will take a while to see everything Alien Hominid has to offer.

Overall

If you love Viewtiful Joe you will love this. If you are getting bored while developers continue to churn on random generic FPS’s week after week you will love this. If you grew up on games like Contra, Metal Slug or Turtles in Time you will love this. Simply put, if you love games, you will love this! Alien Hominid is pure absolute undiluted fun! It deserves to be one of the top selling games of 2005 (although sadly we all know it wont!) Oh so highly recommended to gamers of any age! Buy It!

8.2 out of 10