Alien vs Predator (SNES)


Alien vs Predator is a 1993 beat 'em up video game for Super Nintendo Entertainment System, developed by Jorudan and published by Information Global Service in Japan and by Activision internationally. An arcade game of the same title was released by Capcom eight months later, but the two games are different and their storylines are unrelated to each other.
The Japanese version is titled Aliens vs. Predator and has gameplay differences from the international version.

Gameplay

Alien vs Predator is a beat 'em up video game in which the player controls a Predator and must advance through various stages killing all of the Aliens. The player character may become temporarily invisible and may charge their energy weapons to destroy all onscreen enemies at once.

Story

The game is set on the planet Vega 4 in the city of New Shanghai. A work crew performing underground construction discovers a colony of Aliens which attack them and then quickly moved to the surface. The city is quickly overcome by the Aliens, but the citizens send out a distress signal to Earth which is also received by a passing Predator ship. The Predators decide to hunt the Aliens on Vega 4, seeing them as challenging prey.
The player battles through six stages, fighting various types of Aliens and bosses. Many of the boss enemies are Aliens which have gestated in different types of animals and thus demonstrate characteristics of those animals. These include an aquatic Alien that emerges from a dolphin, a primate-like Alien gestated in an ape, a winged Alien gestated in a bat, and a snake-like Alien. After battling the Aliens on Vega 4 the player Predator travels to the Orion Nebula for the final stage and battles the Alien queen.

Regional differences

The Japanese version of the game is titled Aliens vs. Predator. The player Predator is orange in color and moves slowly, though the player can make him run by tapping the direction button twice. The international version is titled Alien vs. Predator and the player Predator is brown in color, moves faster, and is unable to run. The charging meter for the player's energy weapon is also shorter in the international version. The Japanese version includes a 2-player battle mode in which one player controls a Predator and the other controls an Alien; this mode is absent from the international release.

Reception

Alien vs Predator on the Super NES was met with mixed critical reception since its release.