Alien Storm (arcade)
200x100 GFX Company: Sega
Genre: Beat 'em up
Released: USA: 1990 JPN: 1990
From the Japanese flyer
The 3 screen characters, "GORDON," "KARLA" and "SCOOTER" are operating a hot dog stand. However, once the evil invaders appear, the trio assume the role of the world famous ALIEN BUSTERS. Utilize the powerful weapons and launch an all-out offensive against the invading ALIENS.
From the U.S. flyer
In the year 2002, three employ ee of a neighborhood hot dog stand are called to duty when they hear broadcasts of an alien invasion. Their mission as Alien Busters is to protect the citizens from the slimy aliens.
Most of the game is a side-scrolling beat-em-up. The controls include an attack button with an auto-chain attack sequence, a diving tackle button that makes the hero jump horizontally in a way that damages most foes and a smart-bomb button that hits every enemy on the screen. Gameplay regularly switches to an on-rails target-shooting mode that plays much like Operation Wolf without the Uzi. There are also a few sections where the characters run in an auto-scrolling chase scene where the heroes are following the aliens. The view looks just like the side-scroller mode but the attack button now fires shots and the dive button becomes a regular jump button so you can avoid harmful obstacles and traps. The Golden Axe-style smart bomb attacks are powered by energy that must be replentished by bonus points at the end of a mission or from power-ups found by killing the fly-like enemies and shooting things in the target-shooting sections.

There two-player and three-player versions of this game. The two player version allowed you to pick which character you wanted to play without allowing two of the same character to be onscreen at once while the three-player version had each character locked to a dedicated joystick and controls. These versions also have the heroes in different color palettes. The Japanese version has Gordon in red, Karla in yellow and Scooter with blue eyes and a red... whatever that is on his abdomen. The World version has Gordon in blue, Karla in red and Scooter with yellow eyes and stomach-thing. The Genesis port copies the Japanese color-scheme except for the using the yellow eyed version of Scooter for the main palettes though their alternate colors show up in the "1P VS 2P" mode.

The Electronic Goods Store's televisions in Mission 2, Stage 4 display the heroes of Golden Axe, Joe Musashi from the Shinobi series, Columns, Super Monaco GP and Crackdown. Gilius Thunderhead makes a cameo in the game's ending.

This game mirrors Golden Axe in many ways. Gordon has the balanced stats, Karla is the speed demon who does less damage, and Scooter is slightly slower with stronger attacks. The main weapons here use the same or a similar type of force as the magic in their Golden Axe counterpart, including Scooter's electric whip and Karla's flame thrower. Gordon and Karla's color schemes in the 2-player version even match Ax and Tyris's outfits. My friend Psicoso once pointed out something I still can't believe that I missed: Karla's running sprites are nearly sprite edits of Tyris' run animation from Golden Axe. Some of the aliens in this game also bear a very slight resemblance to the enemies in the far more serious Alien Syndrome, especially the small, pink blob aliens.

Sources: Arcade Flyer Archive: Japanese Flyer, U.S. flyer
Player Characters:
Gordon Karla Scooter
Other Characters:
Ax Battler (cameo) Tyris Flare (cameo) Gilius Thunderhead (cameo) Joe Musashi (Cameo)
Screenshots (click to see full-sized):
Title Screen
ScrollBoss Section Links:
Sprites - Sprites
Logos - Logo

Return to top of the top of the page

Return to top of the top of the page