Alien vs. Predator (arcade game)

Alien vs. Predator is a beat 'em up arcade game released in 1994 by Capcom on the CPS-2, in which the players take control of human and Predator characters in a battle against Aliens. The default cabinet for the game allows as many as three players to play simultaneously, although some smaller cabinets only accommodate two players.

This game has never been officially ported to any home consoles or any other systems by Capcom or Fox Interactive, remaining exclusively an arcade game. A port for the Sega 32X was announced for a 1995 release, but was never published.^[2]

Story

San Drad, California, has been overrun by Aliens, and the cybernetically-enhanced Major Dutch Schaefer and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa have been abandoned by their superiors and are cornered by a swarm of Alien drones. Before they can be killed, two Predators appear and destroy the Aliens. The Predators offer an alliance with the humans in order to stop the Alien infestation.

The players take control of up to three of four characters: Dutch, Linn, a Predator hunter, and a Predator warrior, and battle the Aliens through several environments. In the process, the characters discover that the Alien presence on Earth is the result of an experiment headed by a United Systems Colonial Marines General Bush in conjunction with the Weyland-Yutani corporation. They destroy the Alien hive by crashing a military ship into San Drad, causing a huge explosion. The Predator warrior then gives his wrist blades to Dutch and Linn in recognition of their skills as warriors, before the Predators depart into space.

Characters

The game featurs four characters: two Colonial Marines that ally with a pair of Predators. Each character has varying levels of speed, strength, jumping ability and direction, and different attacks.

• Major Dutch Schaefer — Dutch is named after and roughly based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in the original Predator film.^[3] He has a cybernetic arm with a smart gun mounted on it. His attacks are powerful but slow and he dashes forward instead of jumping.
• Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa — Linn uses a pistol and katana as weapons and can execute several martial arts attacks. She is faster and more agile than Dutch, but has lower stamina and must stop moving to reload her gun. Linn appears in cameos in the later Capcom games Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter III: New Generation, and Namco x Capcom.^[4]
• Predator hunter — The hunter is the younger of the two Predators. His attacks are shorter in range than those of the warrior but deal more damage and can execute more combination attacks. His staff weapon cannot be used while jumping or in the air.
• Predator warrior — The older of the two Predators, his attacks have a longer range than those of the hunter, but deal less damage. He can use his combi-stick weapon while jumping or in the air, diving and ramming it into multiple targets simultaneously.

Gameplay

Alien vs. Predator uses a control setup with an 8-directional joystick and three buttons: one to attack, one to jump, and one to shoot.

Each character is automatically equipped with a standard hand-held weapon. Linn uses a sword while Dutch hits enemies using his cybernetic arm. The Predator hunter uses a bladed staff, while the warrior uses an extendable combi-stick with a retractable spear. Other weapons such as pipes can be found in containers or taken from fallen enemies. Linn and the Predators will throw most of these at enemies, but Dutch will hold onto them and swing them repeatedly.

Each character is also equipped with gun for ranged attacks. Linn uses a rapid-firing handgun, Dutch has a mounted smart gun, and the Predators both use shoulder-mounted energy weapons. Ammunition is represented by a meter near the bottom of the screen; when the meter is depleted, the character is unable to fire until it refills. Linn's ammunition refills fastest, but she is completely defenseless while she reloads. Dutch and the Predators can fight while waiting for their ammunition to refill. A flamethrower and several other guns can also be picked up, though these have a finite amount of ammunition.

Development

The game was based on an early draft of a script for a film adaptation of the Alien vs. Predator comic book series and was intended to have been a tie-in to the movie. Although the draft was later rejected in favor of a different script, Capcom had already completed the game intending for the film to be released around the time of the game's completion.^[5] The Alien vs. Predator film was not released until 2004 and was based on a very different story, and so the arcade game was released in 1994 as a stand-alone storyline to the series.

Reception

According to GameSpot, the game had "gorgeous graphics and special effects" and "was quite an adventure and one hell of a coin cruncher."^[6] In 2009, Destructoid called it "arcade classic still fondly remembered by many today".^[5] In 2011, ScrewAttack included the game's version of Dutch in the list Top 10: Space Marines.^[7]

References

External links

• Alien vs. Predator at GameFAQs
• Alien vs. Predator at Arcade-History