Below are user reviews of Alien Hominid and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Alien Hominid.
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User Reviews (1 - 11 of 17)
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A new take on the run-and-gun genre
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 14 / 15
Date: November 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User
This game is highly reminiscent of other run-and-gun games, such as the original Contra (NES version, not PS2 version), Metal Slug 3, and Gunstar Heroes.
The game is an expanded version of the Flash game that originated from newgrounds.com. There are more levels, more power-ups, and a few new manuevers your alien can do. The game also allows 2-player simultaneous play. The gameplay is not exactly the same as the Flash game. If you played the Flash game and didn't like it, then this game probably won't change your mind. If you liked the Flash game and hungered for more carnage, this game is your cup of tea.
There are 16 sections, divided over 3 levels (i.e. 1-1, 1-2, etc.) The sections are pretty long. You do actually get to run around and shoot before you get to a boss. There are two stages where you fly a spaceship around in the sky and blast other flying things.
The game is as hard as they come. Even on the lowest setting, expect to die often until you learn boss patterns and how to fully use your alien's manuevers. There is a lot of explosions and destruction, that you might find it hard to see enemy bullets. There are also instances where the game is so hard, you might think the game has "cheap deaths." As far as I can tell after playing the game through several times, none of the situations are unavoidable, but they are *very hard to avoid*. If your timing or memorization is off in those situations, you will die.
To counteract the hard difficulty, the extra life system is pretty generous. You can get several extra lives in one section or at the end of the section. In addition, the game will save each section you clear, so you can pick up where you left off.
Fortunately, in 2-player mode, you can set independent difficulty levels for each player. This does not change the AI, but the amount of damage you do, number of player lives, and number of continues. It can help bring a newbie into the game while giving the veteran a bit more challenge.
The only thing I wish this game had was more grenades. Grenade restock items are rare.
After you are done with the main game, there are a few mini-games. You have to unlock all of them except the PDA
-Pinata fight: Shoot a moving pinata balloon and the stage 1 mini-boss for candy. Winner is one who collects the most candy by the end of the time limit. 2-player
-Neutron ball: A one-on-one game to get a ball into your basket. Watch out. You and your opponent can knife each other to temporarily make you drop the ball. 2-player. This isn't that much fun since you end up stabbing each other to get control of the ball, and you can't shoot. It gets repetitive.
-Super Soviet Missle "Mastar": This is an Atari 2600-inspired game. Get a travelling missile to hit an map icon of the U.S. You can only move up and down (no left or right) to avoid flying objects. Touching anything other than the U.S. icon means your missile is destroyed. You can also miss the U.S. icon too. You get 3 missiles total. As you continuing hitting the U.S. icon, the distance to impact gets longer. That is your high score. 1-player.
-Challenge: You select one of 3 locales from the game. You choose one-on-one or cooperative. The game will give you an objective. It's usually either survival (who can last the longest and score the most with limited lives) or get X number of points with limited lives.
-PDA games: This is the default mini-game. 200 one-screen puzzle levels featuring stick figures! These are pretty challenging levels, including some that if you make a mistake, you cannot complete the level (don't worry, there is a "suicide reset" to allow you to restart the level at the cost of one life).
After you are done with that, there is a level editor to allow you to make your own levels, that you can save to the memory card and take over to somebody else's console.
This game retails at $30 and is a lot better value than Neo Contra, which retails at $40.
This game rules!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 9 / 12
Date: November 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User
It's great to see a traditional 2D game again! This was a fun game to play on Newgrounds.com, but now it's much improved with better game play and graphics! There are many challenging levels and you will be sure to get your money out of this game!
Not Much Different From Newgrounds.com Ver.
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 2 / 35
Date: November 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User
The gameplay remains unaltered from that of the flash version found on newgrounds.com. It's basically the same game with flashier graphics. Save your $30 and get something better.
One of the few must gets of the holiday season...
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 6
Date: December 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I've been playing the Demo flash version on Newgrounds several times and i just couldn't stop thinking that the game kicked ass, so needless to say, I was stoked for the consol version, even thought it wouldnt come out for a few years. But I saved my money and sold my games and I finally got my copy and I gotta say, if If I could describe this game in three words, it would have to be: FUN AS HELL!!! This game is amazing and a great improvment over the flash version. But, I must add, that this game is reeaaaallllyyyy hard. like I got at least 20 game overs by the time i finished. So, in conclusion, If you loved Contra and you are up for a challenge, this is for you. If you want to have fun, this is for you. Hell, anyone who liked the origeonal will like this! So get it NOW
a truful reveiw :ONE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER!!!
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 2 / 12
Date: December 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User
alien hominid is one of the best games on the face of earth, and im not just saying that becaus im a fan.
serecley it is realey fun. the ownly reason i gave this a 4 is becaus it is so f@#%ing short! i beat it the first day i got it.
any way on with the review.
controls
++++++
the controls of this game are realy good
you can use a joystick or digetle pad and you
allways have a sence of "it was your falt" type of
controle when you die. execpt some rare times
when your death is completly unavoidible.
I give the controls a 5.
sound and music
++++++++++++++
the sound and music in this game are realy
well done. The music is never repeated exept
the main menu music and start up movie
music. each levle has its own music.
the music in this game is beter then some
high buget movies. the sound f.x. are
good to thow not the best but music
more then makes up for that. the very few
voice f.x. are ealy funny.
i give sound a 5
graphics
+++++++
ALL MY GOD! I have not seen hand drawing
graphics in a game since i was 6, man all
memerys this will bring back......like earthworm jim
the page master.OH wait sory but theis graphics are
that good I mean an actial artist went in and hand drawing
evrey sprite house car and cutseen so if you are a big polygon junkie then this game is not for you.
the animations are funny and some times hilares.
in the first levle when his space ship crashes
and fbi takes his ship one agent steals a kids ice cream cone.
i give graphics a 5 even thow it deservs well over it.
extra featurs
++++++++++
thare are a lot of extra featurs like turing the gore off
for the thumb suckers, and insted of blood their
is flowers! Hats is a good featur so you can give your litle alien a fun hat and a lot of mini games to! like pda games
with a levle editer! i give extra featrs a 5
game play
++++++++
the gameplay is ware alien hominid realy shings
the main levles are like metle slug and AND it hard to xplane but its fun.
i giveit a 4/5
Metal Slug + demented character = Alien Hominid.
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 11 / 11
Date: February 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User
I'll tell you right off the bat- if you like any of the Metal Slug games even the slightest bit, pick up Alien Hominid. The similarities between the two are uncanny. I'll get to that in a minute though. Who knew a quick one-level flash game would get over 6 million downloads and get its own game on home consoles? I sure as heck didn't. In fact, I didn't even try out the flash "demo" until just days before buying this version (I had heard enough from people saying it's "kind of like Metal Slug", knowing I had to have it). It was pretty fun, a little challenging for one quick level, but still fun. But you know what was incredible? How they basically redid a Metal Slug game and gave it a demented protagonist instead of the heroic soldier deal.
You play as...an alien very similar to Stitch of Lilo & Stitch fame. He doesn't have a name, though you can give him one if you want in the options menu. He crash landed on Earth, and his ship was taken away by the FBI. Once you come to your senses at the crash site, you go straight into the action and start cappin' everything in sight. With the first area, it's the FBI and their robots you have to take out. After that, it's the Russians. And the final location? Area 51. Yes, there are only 3 locations in the game, but each one has 5 stages, and the difficulty makes it seem longer than it actually is. Dying over and over...but it doesn't get frustrating. I never just gave up and stopped playing. I kept on going because the game was that fun. Just what is it that you do in Alien Hominid? Let's see...as the alien, you shoot with your ray gun (it looks identical to Earthworm Jim's), can charge up ala MegaMan and shoot huge blasts, slice people in half, dig underground and pull enemies under, toss grenades, jump on the heads of your enemies...and bite them off, hijack vehicles on the freeway and plow through others, hijack construction vehicles, ride atop a sasquatch and sucker punch buildings, and much more. When I found out that you pull out a knife for attacks up close just like in Metal Slug, I knew this was it. Aside from the similar side-scrolling gameplay, grenades as a secondary attack, getting killed with just one hit, and a few other things, it's a sin to call Alien Hominid a "rip-off". While it is strikingly similar to MS, those that haven't played any of the games before will be hooked onto a whole new kind of side-scrolling shooter. The only other game I can compare it to is -slightly- Sonic the Hedgehog. The very last boss fight reminded me a lot of those from Sonic 2 and 3. The game's definately got style of its own as well. And once the main game's over and done, you have over 200 PDA games to go through, make your own, a few other mini-games, and Missle Master...an infamous game that I can't put into words. It's insane.
Graphically, the game looks cool. Like I just said, it has a great style to it. All the characters and backgrounds have a demi-rough look to them, and each character has a multitude of facial expressions. I particularily love the alien's when he's driving around in a vehicle, or taking control of a giant mech Area 51. All of the levels are colorful, but not to the point where it's a pain to look at. There is one small problem with the visuals though. Animations are a little jittery. When jumping, the frames in the alien's model are very limited, and as you stroll along the level, it almost has a strobe effect where frames are missing instead of just moving along smoothly. I don't know if this is just how the ps2 version is, and if it was fixed on the GC version, but it doesn't take too much away from the gameplay. Oh, and there's no slowdown either. Big plus.
The music is memorable and fun. A lot of it is upbeat techno and happy melodies. There isn't much in the way of voices. Most are screams when you bite the head off an enemy, and that's about it. Sound effects are very old-school (I generally hate that term, but that's the best way of putting it here) in some places, like the different kinds of laser upgrades you pick up. And you have to love that thud that kicks in whenever the alien gets punched by a robot a good 15 feet in the air. But my favorite track is that which plays during the PDA mini-games. I could listen to it for hours...and I have.
Alien Hominid is a solid title perfect for just about anyone's collection. If you ever needed diversity, this would be a key example of just that. Metal Slug basics, Sonic-type boss fights, and there's even a level that incorporates the gameplay of Asteroids in there. I wasn't disappointed with the game one bit. Even the instruction manual had me laughing. One page reads "FAT KIDS give you POWER-UPS". Yes, "FAT KIDS" was in capital letters. That alone is worth a look. But give Alien Hominid a try. It's cheap, and has a lot going for it. And don't you dare give it a bad review because it's "too hard". At least play the "demo" on the New Grounds site so you know what you're getting yourself into. It's basically a free rental.
Excellent fun!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 12 / 12
Date: March 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User
The Hominid game was originally a flash game on the web, that developed a loyal following. Now it has become a full fledged PS2 game!
Gameplay is brilliant. You are a yellow space-alien with two antennae, that can choose from a variety of hats. If you're playing multi-player, try to choose VERY different hat styles so you do not get confused. This is a side-scrolling platformer where you move along from left to right, killing FBI, Soviet Russians and anyone else who gets in your path.
This is a ton of mindless fun. You blast away, riding in cars, flying in spaceships, running on your feet, generally shooting anything that shows up in your path. The game is VERY gory, even though it is cel-shaded. You can bash off peoples' heads, slice them with lasers, even throw them into chippers. If you're not a gore fan, turn that off - and you get a bouquet of yellow flowers insetad.
Be warned, this game doesn't start off easy. Even the beginning bosses are a challenge. But the gameplay is so much fun that you don't mind, and soon you are deep into the hack and slash mayhem. The whole game is tongue-in-cheek, with shops such as 'steakery cakery', 'gass pass' and 'grease glob'.
In addition to the regular gameplay, which is quite addictive, there are a ton of mini-games such as a soccer style game, a missile-against-US game and even a little line-drawing platformer that comes complete with a level editor.
The little touches in this game are just brilliant. You can delve underground just like a Zergling, and then when someone walks over you, you can suck them down and eat them. There are fun weapons to play with, and the list of enemies you face are quite hilarious.
Highly recommended!
greatest 8-bit game ever
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User
it's got everything. sounds like contra, plays like mega man, metroid and zelda ii. he sounds similar to mario when he jumps. you blast a lot of stuff. music and stages are played like a cartoon show from about that era. oh yeah, and it's hard like that too. i died a lot.
i can't really complain, this is about as classic as it gets for me.
Any game where you can bite somebody's head off must be good
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User
Fun, fun, fun. But tough, tough, tough.
I won't bore you comparing this came to Contra like every other reviewer probably has. What I will say is that this game is action-packed. You shoot stuff. You shoot some more stuff. You avoid having stuff shoot you back. Then you do some more shooting.
It's a simple concept, but man, is it fun. The graphic presentation is a delight, and this game has so much personality. Just a shame everyone has to buy Resident Evil and Metal Gear (not that they're bad games) and just doesn't take the time to find a gem like this. Video games are like movies now. The smaller titles just get buried under an avalanche of hype for a handful of blockbusters.
Oh, well. Never mind my moment of melancholy. Just buy this game and enjoy shooting stuff and watching it blow up real good.
How can you NOT buy this?
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User
This game is excellent. From the gameplay to the way the controlls feel. It just works.
Plus it is only 20 bucks (the last i checked anyway)
JUST BUY IT!!!!
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