Alien Rampage is an old-school run-and-gun shooter from 1996 with all the ingredients required to make an entertaining game. Smooth scrolling; cool explosions; lots of different weapons; plenty of different monsters; gory gibs; an agile central character.

But… there’s something about it that misses the mark. A number of things, I think.

Firstly, the graphics are patchy. While the main character (an obvious ‘tribute’ to the Predator) is well animated, and the explosions are nicely done, the background graphics are a bit rough IMO, and (initially at least) somewhat blandly-coloured. The foreground jungle grass and hanging vines get in the way of the sprites in a rather disconcerting way – I’ve seen the technique used far better in other games.

Secondly, I think the main character is too big, which impacts on the gameplay as a whole. If he was smaller, you’d be able to see more of your surroundings as you run and shoot. As it is: the play window – due to the scale of the graphics – feels too restrictive.

On the plus side: the controls are responsive and the main character moves about well. He does have a rather strange jump when swinging off a rope though…

Still available to buy on Steam/GOG.com, Alien Rampage is a fun blaster for a short while. It’s even more fun if you play it with the hidden cheat mode switched on…

Note: What is interesting about Alien Rampage is that it originally started life as a 2D Duke Nukem game developed by 3D Realms, but was shelved then eventually sold off to Inner Circle Creations, who renamed it and released it with an alien lead character.

Steam: Alien Rampage on Steam
GOG.com: Alien Rampage on GOG.com