Going from a flash-based computer game back in 2003, to becoming the quirky and popular arcade game for the PS2 and Gamecube a couple years later, and finally landing on the XBLA, Alien Hominid HD has come a long way. And fortunately, ever since its birth, the game has given its audience a challenge, an occasional laugh, and a hell of a good time.
Starting the single player campaign up, you will soon find yourself as a tiny yellow alien fiend who crash lands here on earth after being shot down by the FBI’s anti-alien guns (and yes, these do exist in real life). Playing through the first couple of minutes, you should notice how the hand-drawn levels breathe some animated life into the game world. The buildings and their backgrounds are vibrant, explosions are colorful, and your character is stocked full of simple and extremely violent killing animations. As you and I both know, this is the start of a great arcade game.
The controls are simple enough: A to jump, X to fire, B to throw grenades, and, of course, the analogs to move your character around (or the directional pad if that’s what floats your boat). Add your two-button combinations to lay the true smack down: the decapitating head bite, the classic “ride-the-agent” jump, and being able to burrow a hole underground and pull agents under with you .Throw in and implement these special moves, and you got yourself a full arsenal to mame, kill, and destroy. Easy enough……now it’s a cake walk from there right? Wrong. This game is NOT easy (for more emphasis on the previous line, picture Borat repeating it).
Alien Hominid’s difficulty is set at the “easiest” level as a default standard, but you will soon be questioning this statement as you play through the first five minutes. Enemies flood the screen at every moment of the game, and the task of not dying at least once every minute is reserved for those who have not just completed, but mastered the game. But don’t fear quite yet: having AH set on easy gives your little Martian freak seven continues, with seven lives per continue. So you are basically set on the whole dying issue (of course there is the chance that you suck horrendously at this game; in this case I wish you the best of luck).
Going back to the actual game play, AH brings you through 16 levels and three different settings: an urban city, Russia (aliens + Russia = ???), and Area 51. And don’t think you are just going to be runnin’ and gunnin’ the entire time; you will be jumping from building to building, saving the misshapen humans that inhabit the world, evading the FBI on the highway, flying around in your own customizable spaceship, and defeating some of the hardest bosses known to an arcade game (a couple giant robots here and there, a few mutated and ravaging aliens thrown into the picture; you know, the usual).
