Alien Hominid

The Good
Based on a Flash game on newgrounds.com, Tom Fulp (the game's creator, and founder of the site) was amazed with the public's response to the game. It has been downloaded nearly 10 million times by visitors of the site, and received many great reviews. Many people call it the best thing ever created in Flash.

You took on the role as an alien hominid. You are joyriding in your beloved spaceship above Earth when you get zapped by the FBI (they do monitor outer space, you know!). When you crash land on Earth, the FBI take your ship away. You want revenge. You want it back!

In response to this, Tom decided not to create a sequel, but an all-new version for consoles. The story remains the same, but the code has been completely rewritten for the console versions, whilst retaining the look and feel of the original. And he's certainly done the right thing, as it's absolutely fantastic!

The first thing you'll notice is the top cartoony graphics. These are very well-drawn by artist Dan Paladdin, and is one of the game's highlights. There are some great explosions and animation here too!

Perhaps the greatest thing about this title is totally wild humour, especially when it comes to the moves you can do against the FBI. You can jump on top of an FBI agent, and then choose to either throw him at other agents or bite his head off. Listen to the agent scream to his death! You can also bury yourself underground and pull them down. They wouldn't even know what happened! You can do all this, as well as zap, fry or even slice them! The blood that comes out is also pretty neat.

As you can probably tell from the above, the game itself is extremely violent, and not for younger players. There is an option to turn the gore off, but it only replaces the blood with flowers. The slicing frying etc is still existent.

The levels are also well thought out. There are crumbling buildings, tanks and others to steal (including a missile launcher and a giant yeti!), even an exploding nuclear power plant! The bosses are a good challenge too.

Your character is also customisable. You have the option to change your alien's name and hat. This is quite important, especially in the excellent two-player co-op mode as it makes it easier to identify your alien!

I was also impressed with what I get from my stereo speakers. The sound effects are pretty decent with lasers, explosions and even screams of death! The music is not so impressive, but is very moving.

Perhaps what makes the game even more value for money is the inclusion of mini-games. These are generally good, but the PDA game is a real classic. It's a simple platform game with around 200 levels, and the main aim is to destroy all the baddies and head for the exit. It's a lot harder than you think it is, and later levels see you navigate maze-like environments. I find this mini-game highly addictive, and well worth buying on its own. A level editor is also included, so you can make your own PDA game nightmares!

The Bad
The first thing you'l know when you start the game is that it's quite hard. It starts off quite challenging, it soon becomes frustatingly, hair-rippingly difficult. I saw the game over screen about twenty times upon trying to defeat the final boss, and that's only on the easy difficulty level! Good thing that the game is saved after every level!

Another problem is that the game is just far too short and shallow. There's a few things to unlock, but you'll unlock them in no time whatsoever, and even the high difficulty level cannot compensate for such a short game. You'll be asking for more after you've seen the game's ending!

Another problem, especially in the PS2 version, is slowdown. Even though the game is only a 2D side-scroller, there's so much going on that the speed of the game is reduced to a fairly low speed. The good thing about this though is that it doesn't hinder the gameplay, or make the game less fun, which is in some way a good point.

The Bottom Line
Bad points aside, Alien Hominid is one of the coolest PS2 games around. If you want an old-style 2D side-scrolling action game with tons of humour, this is it! When I first fired up this game on my PAL UK PS2, I thought it was £24.99 well spent. Just pure class. Buy it.

NOTICE TO EUROPEAN GAMERS:

The European version of Alien Hominid is only available on PS2 and XBox (with GBA and Mobile versions out by the end of 2005), and is published by ZOO Digital, not by O~3 Entertainment.

The Good
Everything, man! Sounds, Graphics, game, PDA.... EVERYTHING!

The Bad
Didn't? Are you kidding?

The Bottom Line
It’s true! The best 2D Shooter on the PS2 was made. And it’s mega-awesome on the Xbox. You see, if you went on Newgrounds, or searched ‘Alien Hominid’ on a search engine, you will know about this; Alien Hominid was original by a Flash game by Tom Fulp, and an artist called Dan. It was one of the best games on Newgrounds. Until now, while over 9 million peoples’ views, Zoo Digital sat on the chair on this internet game. We thought that they liked the flash game, and they made it the best shooter known! In this game, it’s not just killing the FBI with weapons and using basic moves. No! First, there is more moves than the flash game – pulling enemies while digging, throwing grenades, holding enemies and throwing them, and charging up blasts for a bigger power-shot by the damage depending what weapon you have got.

If you fancy, you can dress up your hominids, and name/rename them to make a sentence together in 2-player mode. Example; P1’s name is ‘Eat your’ and P2’s name is ‘Pudding’ which makes altogether ‘Eat your Pudding’ which makes more than a sentence than name! But that’s not the point of making names. The point of making names is that you can find out the style of your hominid, or, if you have that football minigame, you can make the name of a football team or player in it and play! It is wonderful fun.

“Alien Hominid is the best 2D shooter in this planet”

Now you get weapons from the Fat Kid. My favourite is the Acid Blaster. So it’s easier than just getting ammo and weapons from killing enemies. You can ride cars, trucks, yetis, vans too. It’s easy, you can just press triangle when near one. If you liked the moves from the flash game, you can. There is the old freak attack bite, that can bite your enemies (OUCH!) you can still freak attack ride and hover down by shooting down while moving.

Now – as we said, 2-player mode. You can have a friend and play with them to make the game much easier. If you have Lego Star Wars, that 2-player team mode can be better, but only because its 3D. This is 2D, No classic. You can also play PDA Games that can allow you to go through over 200 black and white stages, controlling a stick man. You can run, jump, climb, sail, push, attack, suicide or die. The choice is yours.

Saying for ranking words, this game is the best shooter on the PS2. For the Xbox version, the online mode is rubbish (whatever!) and a bit down at controls. But that’s very, very little. So the game is still very, very good. If you enjoy the flash game you should buy this game. Stop playing online, spend only £25 pounds on a great game like this!

GRAPHICS: 10 Hand-drawn by Dan, who is a pro artist. GAMEPLAY: 10 Never Stop shooting and playing for us. SOUNDS: 9 Loud music makes clear sights.