Alien Hominid began as a Flash game on the Internet, and quickly became a cult favorite. It has been retooled from the ground up to create an entirely brand new game for the PlayStation 2 (and GameCube) with new artwork hand-drawn by Dan Paladin. You play as this cute little alien, but this guy has attitude and firepower to boot. The game is pure 2D action and you’ll wonder in amazement at all the action that manages to go on during the course of the game. Alien Hominid revolves around the little, but ferocious Alien Hominid, that gets shot down while orbiting Earth and is now the focus of a huge hunt by FBI agents. The FBI takes the Alien Hominid’s space ship and is now coming for him. As the Alien Hominid it is your job to get back your ship and fend off the FBI. Alien Hominid takes you back to a fonder day where games were fun and the action was furious, it’s pure side-scrolling madness in what is a must play for action fans everywhere.The first thing you’ll notice about Alien Hominid is the graphics, the beautiful hand-drawn, hand-animated graphics are some of the prettiest to ever grace a console. The artwork gives the gamer the feeling that they’re playing a fully functional cartoon. Yes, it looks that good. The levels are action-packed and vivid with colors that make your television screen come alive. Bosses fill the entire screen as do some of the craziest explosions ever seen in a game. 2D is back and more beautiful than ever in Alien Hominid.
The sound in Alien Hominid is very fitting. The music and sound effects are really done well and complement the fast and frantic gameplay. The music sets the tone for the game whether you’re fighting your everyday FBI agents or the big bad bosses. Sound effects are just as big as the explosions are, so the game is loud and is a good workout for your surround sound system. Alien Hominid does a fantastic job of melding the frenetic pace of the game with the music.
Let it be said that as gorgeous as the graphics are in Alien Hominid that this is no cakewalk and it makes no apologies for being difficult. FBI agents come at you from every angle and fire at will, enemy vehicles also show no mercy as they come at you full speed . Did I mention that one hit will kill you? Yeah, pretty much that’s what happens. You can carry shields, but those disappear after one hit, too. Don’t think that the game is impossible, though, it’s just hard, but they manage to give you lots of power-ups and points help you earn extra lives and continues. The Alien Hominid’s arsenal of weapons is pretty impressive, but even more so is the abilities he has. He can bite the heads off of humans or throw them, duck, roll, jump, dig underground to hide, back flip, drive various vehicles and more. The best part about Alien Hominid is the clever way they break up the shooting action with driving levels, whether you’re on a snowmobile or in your spaceship the unique level design is highly enjoyable if not further of a challenge. It’s all a bit difficult at first, yes, but given time you’ll see that each skill is necessary to progress through the game. Yes, this is primarily a side scrolling shooter, but it has much more depth than any other game before it.
Alien Hominid is solid action for one player, but hook up another controller and it’s explosive. The action gets even crazier with two Alien Hominid’s on screen at once to wreak havoc on those pesky FBI agents. If that’s not enough there are mini-games that you can unlock during regular play, and one of the coolest sub-games since Metal Gear Solid’s VR Missions, PDA games. The mini-games are pretty fun, too. The Behemoth did an awesome job of giving players every pennies worth for buying their game. The PDA Games are a very simple stick figure drawing of small levels where your goal is to get rid of the enemy. It’s very simple, but the difficulty ramps up as you move from one stage to the next. The simple puzzles and limited life allow for hours of gaming beyond the regular game. The PDA games can also be played with a friend if you have a multitap, and there is even a level editor included so you can make your own map and take it to a friend’s house on your memory card. With over 200 levels the PDA Games is like the bonus game of all bonus games.
While there are so many good things to say about Alien Hominid there are also some issues that plague it. The first and foremost is it’s difficulty, but that can be remedied with practice and through the difficulty settings in the options. The second is that the PlayStation 2 really shows it’s age; with this game there is slowdown, not during the game where you might expect it, but during the loading screens, which by the way seem to take a little longer than expected. The long load times can be forgiven, though, since they don’t interfere with the actual gameplay. While the levels can be pretty short and the game can probably be finished in a day or two, the bonuses and extra features more than make up for this. Alien Hominid is a rock solid effort by The Behemoth.
Final Verdict
For a game that has humble beginnings, Alien Hominid has gone on to grow up and become a beast of a game. The sense of humor is always welcome and the artwork is unbelievable. Don’t let it’s lack of three-dimensional graphics turn you away, before there was 3D there was 2D, and this is by far one of the best looking 2D games I’ve ever seen. The Behemoth have made a great game and hopefully, have the foundation for making a great sequel because this game is worthy of your hard earned money especially when it’s nearly half the price (MSRP $29.99) of lesser quality unoriginal titles available in stores now. If you don’t get this game you’ll only have yourself to blame for the lack of originality in the video game industry.
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