Alien Hominid

[Anayo]

I just picked this game up at Gamestop, of all places. The $5 price tag was what persuaded me.

What a weird game this is! It's like Invader Zim meets Earthworm Jim meets Gunstar Heroes. I've never seen a console game with adobe illustrator-ish vector-style illustrations before. Or a 2D side scroller on a primarily 3D console like the Gamecube, of all things. It's a really weird feeling, like the sort I'd get if someone made a movie today with Jim Henson style puppets rather than CG. Personally I find it really nostalgic and cool, especially when a level ends, wacky music starts playing, and a scoreboard tells me how well I performed on the level. It feels like a 16-bit game or an old arcade, which is pretty squee-inducing for my inner retro nerd.

The animations are hilarious and really polished. The gameplay isn't as good as Metal Slug or Contra, but I'll chalk that up to the fact that Alien Hominid probably had a lower budget than those games. So far I like it just because of how different it is.

[crux]

The game was originally a Flash game on Newgrounds; thus the low-budget looks. It's a solid run 'n' gun, especially given how few of them are released. It's quite hard, so there's a good amount of replay value. But you're right, overall I wouldn't say it stands up to the likes of Metal Slug. But then, not many run 'n' guns do.

[AppleQueso]

It's basically a metal slug clone, but it's totally great for what it is. Me and my friend played through it co-op a few times.

It's a multiplatform game, by the way, there's ps2 and xbox versions as well.

[fastbilly1]

I bought it knowing what it was, then I found the PDA game on it. It was a whim, but three hours passed like mere minutes sinking myself and two friends deeply within its grasp. I highly suggest the PDA game with some friends. Ive still not beaten the actual game, but we play the PDA game every time we game.

[casterofdreams]

I picked this up on Xbox Live and it is an amazing game. The style is shared only by Castle Crashers and the Pda games is great over Live. They got a bunch of "map packs" for the PDA games as well and I got 'em all!!!

[noiseredux]

It's basically a metal slug clone, but it's totally great for what it is. Me and my friend played through it co-op a few times.

It's a multiplatform game, by the way, there's ps2 and xbox versions as well.

and a GBA version. PC as well I think?

[AppleQueso]

It's basically a metal slug clone, but it's totally great for what it is. Me and my friend played through it co-op a few times.

It's a multiplatform game, by the way, there's ps2 and xbox versions as well.

and a GBA version. PC as well I think?

GBA version? I didn't know this.

and PC is obvious, because as they said above, it was originally a flash game.

[h8b1llg8ts]

oXbox is PAL only ... disappointed on that one considering it had Xbob Live support back then ...

[noiseredux]

GBA version? I didn't know this.

most people don't. It received a very limited UK-only print.

[JordanPlayer]

In case anyone didn't know here; this game was made by The Behemoth (who have also made Castle Crashers and are working on another new game called BattleBlock Theater for release this year).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Behemoth

I love Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers so it should be interesting to see how their next game turns out; from videos it looks to be a 2D platformer with a reliance on co-op.