Attack of the mutant editors

Producer: ACE
Out of Pocket: £8.99 cass, £14.99 disk
Author: Pamela Roberts, graphics by Jack Wilkes and Mike Marchant

Brave (and very modest) hero that you are, you have been sent to rescue ten comrades being held in a genetics lab by nasty organic mutations (who, I must admit, look remarkably like our beloved Ed after a heavy evening getting as newt-happy).

Licensed from the Sega original, Alien Syndrome is an ichor- (alien for blood) spattered romp through a Gauntlet style 'shoot first and ask questions later' game, brought to you by Softek International's new software label, Ace. And it is a surprisingly attractive conversion of the popular coin-op, which more than lives up to expectations.

You can choose to play Ricky or Mary, two veteran alien busters with a loathing for anything slimy. So alone, or with a friend's help, you set about pulverising the bug-eyed hordes.

The time bomb set, your search begins. Your basic shot blaster is fairly effective, but doesn't quite have the spatter effect required. Searching the complex reveals weapons bays, and touching them arms you with weapons to make Rambo proud. There are lasers, bombs, flame-throwers, fire balls, and a handy little device called an option.

Option is a small robot who follows you around and protects your rump - though care must be taken when in two-player mode because both players can kill each other, and the most annoying thing is to follow a player with an option blasting away at all and sundry.

Graphically Alien Syndrome is effective, with the daring duo (this game is best played with a friend, although my 'friend' Phil King kept shooting my character when I played doubles with him) rampaging around, trying to stop the ghastly (and I do mean that in the nicest sense) aliens from practising some (usually all) of their antisocial activities.

One thing that does put me off play a little is the slightly jerky screen scrolling, but once into the game, too much is happening to worry about this.

Once all ten hostages are freed (usually with much reference to the radar maps found scattered around the complex), you must make a beeline for the exit. You're only given a short time to achieve this goal, so speed is of the essence.

Here you are faced with a large monster to be destroyed within a time limit, and as the weapon used to free your comrades is transferred to this screen, it's best to collect the most powerful one available.

Once this is completed it's onto the next meanie-filled screen to blast the heck out of those vile green refugees from a science fiction movie. Alien Syndrome is a very playable addition to the ageing 'if it moves, blast it' game. Nothing new, but what the hell, I like it.

MARK [90%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Graphics: mostly monochromatic sprites, apart from the grotesque large aliens
Sound: limited to simple blasting effects
Options: simultaneous two-player option

Although Alien Syndrome has lost much colour in its conversion to the Spectrum, it loses nothing in gameplay. The graphics are cute and quite varied.

The massive alien at the end of each level is well-drawn and its animation is surprisingly smooth as it spews forth red gunge at you (which Nick mistook for Cherry Coke...). Unfortunately 128K owners get no extra music because 48K BASIC must be selected to load the program. Nevertheless, the existing sound FX are atmospheric enough without the need for snazzy title tunes.

What really makes Alien Syndrome so playable is its concept. Shooting squirming aliens is satisfying, and the half-screen scrolling makes progress more difficult than on the coin-op, as you never know what lurks ahead. Whereas the one-player game involves frantic blasting, with two players more care must be taken to avoid shooting your colleague (clumsy Caswell should watch where he's firing his bullets!).
PHIL [90%]

Not having played the arcade machine, I can't comment on how faithful the Spectrum conversion is, but it's a great shoot-'em-up nevertheless.

The graphics are simple but clear with the best being on the grotesque mutants between levels. Having male and female characters may stop sexist remarks, and as they both have equal abilities it doesn't really make much difference which you choose.

The game gets really going once past the first level, the aliens all change and the gameplay gets faster. You'll need to be quick with your fire button to survive Alien Syndrome, but it's well worth the sore fingers!
NICK [90%]

RAD
£2.99 (rerelease)

This is the official conversion of that brilliant SEGA coin-op so well received by all magazines when it first came out. You have to battle against all sorts of alien scum, which range from blobs of matter to the big end of level monsters with bits sticking out all over the place. There are various weapons you can pick up along your journey of destruction, including flamethrowers, lasers and fireballs, and there are maps embedded in the walls of the play area which will show you where to go. The idea is to rescue all the prisoners dotted around each level, then go on to defeat the big alien and on to the next level.

All the graphics, sound and colour in Alien Syndrome are great, but it is just let down by the terrible multi-load system which almost every game has these days. That aside, you can get hours of playability out of this, and the meanness of the aliens gets greater as you progress, making it a real challenge.

Alien Syndrome was a first class arcade game in 1987, and the conversion was brilliant when it was first released. Now it has been rereleased at £2.99, all those who missed it first time round just have to check it out.

ACE
£7.99 cass
Reviewer: Ben Stone, Mike Dunn

Maybe this game should be called Alien Syringedrome 'cos it takes place in a genetics laboratory you see. Then again, maybe it shouldn't 'cos in this laboratory things have gone rather badly wrong. The quiet complex, usually populated by boffins gently engineering various species to mankind's needs, has suddenly become a fraught danger zone, over-run by horrific, bloodthirsty mutants (sounds like the YS office to us!). Normally, the authorities would just seal down the labs and blow them to kingdom come, taking all the nasty beasties with it, but the scientists working there are trapped (shock, horror!). So it's up to you to get in there and rescue them before a time bomb (which is set on arrival) goes fadoooooom! and turns the monsters, scientists, rescuers and all into a few unsightly stains (eugh!).

Like the arcade game, there is a two player option, which has the obvious advantage of doubled killing power, but you have to be very wary, because letting rip with your blast-o-fry flame thrower (or whatever other instrument of terror and death you just happen to come across) rubs out your partner with just as much efficiency as it does the mutants. Scattered around the playing area, behind special panels, are weapons galore: a flame thrower, a bomb launcher, a lazer, a fireball flinger, and the inspiringly named 'options' which tag onto you and guard your behind, firing when you do. Only one weapon and two options can be held at a time which is annoying. We happen to love blazing around in a frenzy of destruction with half a dozen weapons going at full blast (it's messy, but fun!).

There are loads of scientists scattered around the first level (shown on the score panel as companions); find ten and you can progress to the next level (leaving the rest behing to a sticky death - sick!). Here the scientists become harder to find, and the aliens are slightly more bent on killing you! The exit from this level leads into another room in which floats a vile and vast mega-monster who does his very best to wipe you all over the floor. These fairly disgusting entities are portrayed beautifully with liberal use of colour and pretty animation, something which is missing from the main figures of the game where the figures are tiny, and the quarter scrolling (where the screen only moves when you get close to the edge) can create problems when you're dangerously close to hundreds of mutants just off screen!

Despite the several quite minor problems already mentioned, Alien Syndrome is a wonderful romp through some great carnage. This romp is made far more enjoyable by the two player option, although we think it'd save a lot of teeth gnashing if the two players were impervious to each other's fire, like the scientists seem to be.

Graphically, the first stage of each level is adequate without being elaborate, but the second more than makes up for this. Colour is used brightly throughout, but the characters are disappointingly small, unlike, Gauntlet, a great deal the screen is made up of scenery and the score line, so the action is a little cramped, though it manages to be fast.

Playability, the most important bit, is brilliant! The addictive content is also very heavy, until you start getting onto the higher levels where the task gradually becomes more and more tiresome. That said, however, the difficulty level is geared to make it a challenge - we certainly didn't make it out of the first few levels in a hurry. We also reckon the one player game is slightly easier to make progress on, though it's somewhat less fun.

Alien Syndrome represents quite reasonable value: it has a future on the shelf, as opposed to the pile in the box on the floor!

Label: The Edge
Author: Pamela Roberts
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

They're disgusting. They're slimy. They'll suck your brains out. No, they're not estate agents - they're the aliens in Alien Syndrome, one of the most eagerly-awaited coin-op conversions of recent months. It's here, and all things considered, it's pretty good. Of course, you aren't going to get a faithful version of the coin-op on the Spectrum; the colour's gone, the sampled sound effects have gone, but the action and the sliminess remain.

Set on a multi-level space station complex, each level of which is loaded separately from tape, the game involves more mindless blasting than you'll have seen since Gauntlet. The stations are infested with hideous alien life forms, and you must battle through them to rescue your ten comrades from each level. A time bomb has been set to destroy each level, so don't mess about.

You can choose to play either a hunky man. Rick, or a curvaceous bimbo, Mary, though this doesn't make any difference to the gameplay. There's also a two-player mode where both characters can compete, but you must be careful not to shoot your comrade.

The huge playing areas are shown in a sort of flip-scroll display which works quite nicely. Around each complex are dotted map displays, which show the general layout of the complex, your position and those of your comrades; and lockers containing alternative weapons. Once you have rescued ten of your friends, you can make your way to the exit at the top of the screen. That's when things start getting really disgusting.

The inter-level guardians are the most obscene masses of quivering protoplasm you've ever seen; crosses between insects, foetuses and blancmanges which spurt boiling phlegm at you. If you can do it without gagging, concentrate your fire on them as they slop around. When they explode, watch out for the flying limbs; they're still deadly and must be shot or avoided. After that you get a bonus according to your speed and efficiency, and a prompt to load the next level.

Each level is of a different type; on some, you have narrow causeways, on others, complex corridors. The aliens change too; on level one, squirmy maggots which sit up and spit at you; level two, boiling pits of hammer-headed monstrosities.

It's simple and straightforward, and it's non-stop blasting. If you like Gauntlet you'll like this, but in my opinion it's even better; true, there are hordes of aliens, but each one forms an individual target, rather than them merging into a boring mass. Great pukey fun.

RAD
Spectrum/C64/Amstrad £1.99, ST £9.99

Last year's arcade conversion from The Edge re-released under their new cheapo label. Your ship has been infested by aliens, so a bomb has been set to destroy them and the ship. A load of your comrades have been slimed up by the aliens and you and a mate have to roam around releasing them, then get to the exit before the ship does the big firework.

In spirit, the conversions are accurate to the arcade game, featuring similar level layouts, aliens and extra weapons, and some suitably gross boss monsters. They're all playable enough too, but they could all have been better. One fault which seems to plague all of them, is the slow screen scroll, it can't keep up with the players so they can run to the edge of the screen and get clobbered by a monster that suddenly appears out of nowhere.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.99, Diskette: £14.99

SLIMY HORRORS

The slimy bowels of spaceships crawling with extraterrestrials of gruesome shapes and sizes is the selling for Alien Syndrome. These weird lifeforms have captured humans and imprisoned them in their ships - cue two freedom fighters to go in, set time bombs, kill aliens and rescue comrades before the spacecraft blows up.

Spectrum owners will be extremely pleased with Ace's conversion of what is a fast scrolling, graphic intensive coin-op. While colour isn't used in abundance, the small characters are detailed and move well, the pace of the game keeping you busy, with no let-up in the action.

Although not as gruesome as they could have been, the aliens have a nice line in wriggling and writhing with some interesting and varied mega-aliens to match.

The problem of push screen scrolling hasn't been rectified, and like the other versions its a risky tactic to go too near the screen's edge where hidden aliens await.

In two player mode Alien Syndrome is a great game. The spirit of teamwork and player co-operation found in the coin-op is alive and kicking. The only gripe about dual play is that the players can shoot each other - not a welcome feature when the heat is on!

An attractive, highly playable game with considerable challenge to please fans of the coin-op.