Alien v. Predator

Background: In this tactical simulator you must face vicious aliens and the ultimate hunter, known as the Predator.  You must escape the Colonial Marine Training Base alive and set off the self destruct mechanism. You must find the shotgun, pulse rifle, flame thrower, and the ultimate Smart Gun, but strategy is your ultimate weapon.

What makes this game so special is that you can also be the Predator who hunts down the aliens and marines, or the alien who must save the Alien Queen. 

Game Play: This game is unmatched in its unique mix of strategy and action.  As the marine, there is a total of 5 sublevels that you must traverse in the base before you destroy it and get out in the escape pod.  Along the way, you must discover weapons and security key cards to get access to certain areas and levels.  The air ducts are ruthless and pose a serious risk of aliens.  

This game is immersive with excellent sound effects and no music to take away from the experience.  You will literally jump out of your seat as an alien comes slashing down the hallway towards you.  This game does not have the constant action of Doom, but adds so much in strategy and detail that it more than makes up for it.

As the Predator, you live for the hunt and your ultimate trophy is the Alien Queen’s skull.  At first you start out with only your wrist blade, but gain superior weapons as you kill prey.

If you choose to be the alien you must rescue the Alien Queen who is being held captive on the Predator’s Ship.  You can generate new alien lives in hosts bodies.  The alien is quick and has its venomous tail, claw, and teeth as weapons.

No matter who you choose to be this game is excellent.  One drawback that must be mentioned, before you rush out and buy this game, is the save game feature.  As a marine, it only saves the your score, security card level, weapon types, ammo, and energy.  That means that all the random aliens you have just killed will regenerate next time you load up the game!  So be sure to save the game in an elevator where aliens can’t quickly strike at you.  

Pros: strategy, immersive game, sound effects, action, multiple game scenarios
Cons: poor game save feature

Hyper Force

You will go through a series of missions to destroy Trans Con and must deal with spike traps, flame throwers, and a host of mechanical enemies.  Between levels you can buy extra weapons, ammo, and other goodies.  

Game Play: Best described as a Platform shooter, you must travel many levels looking for switches to get to the next level. The characters are bigger then you would expect, but you get use to it quickly.  The overall graphics are good, except that the main character could have a little more detail.  The music is excellent; a great accompaniment to the action. 

One of the best features is that your soldier can hover.  This allows you to reach high platforms and avoid enemy fire.  The hover control is quite good and it allows you to avoid the frustration of falling off platforms, like in games such as Rayman.  Further, your soldier has a good amount of life and can take multiple hits.  

The manual itself is not as descriptive as you like, and does not give you descriptions of all the enemies and weapons, but this is probably due to the fact that Songbird did not have access to the source code.  

Also, I noticed that the game occasionally locks up when you save or load it.  However, others reported no such problem. I believe that you can lessen this problem by going slow through the load, and save commands.

Don’t let the last couple points dissuade you from buying this game.  I was taken by surprise at how good this game really is.  It is unique in that it can be a challenge, but is not so frustrating that you want to quit.  This is perhaps the best platform game for the Jaguar and one that will keep you playing to the very end.

Pros: fast action, multiple enemies & weapons, long life, hover abilities
Cons: manual, can lock up saving & loading

PLAYER GUIDE

Goodies:

– Switch (to open doors)

– $100

– $100

– $200

– $200

– 200 Points

– 400 Points

– Increase life

– $100

– 500 Points

– Increase Ammo

– Increase Ammo

– Increase Life

Traps:

– Spike Trap

– Metal Ball Trap

– Flame Trap

– Pit

Purchase Screen:

Top Row: (Guns) One shot, dual shot, dual large shot, triple shot

Middle Row: (Ammo) additional ammo for each gun

Bottom Row: (miscellaneous) extra ammo?, extra man, extra life?