Now this is an interesting departure from the majority of Alien 3 games of the time… It’s an overhead scrolling adventure, rather than a side-scrolling shooter.

Developed by British firm B.I.T.S. (aka Bits Studios) and published by LJN in North America and Acclaim in Japan in 1993, Alien 3 on the Game Boy sees you playing Ripley, on Fury 161, and the similarity to the film ends there… LOL.

Hidden among the maze of rooms on Fury 161 are various tools, keycards and weapons to help you fight the multiple aliens, that aren’t in the film, and eventually take on the Alien Queen that is nesting in the furnace, which also clearly isn’t in the film…

The prisoners seen in the film are in the game to feed you the storyline, with hilariously bad, shortened dialogue. They also populate the various areas as decorations (ie. fodder for the aliens), and at least make the world look busy, even if they don’t do much.

One thing you need to figure out straight away, otherwise you’re doomed to wander around aimlessly in this game, is that the small dots on the ground indicate that there’s something there to examine. And to see what it is, you have to stand on it, and then press Select to bring up the inventory. If there’s an item of interest there, you’ll be able to see it, and can then click it with the arrow cursor to pick it up. And if it’s a weapon, you must then click it with the arrow while in the inventory, to put it into your hand and make it useable as a weapon. It’s all too easy to not realise you’re not armed in this game…

You need to find a flamethrower to burn the alien eggs, and – once you’ve dealt with the small matter of the Alien Queen – only then can you activate the escape pod and leave the planet. Just as doesn’t happen in the film…

When you’ve used up all three of your ‘tries’ (not lives, because you keep getting rescued), the game gives you a breakdown of your game and kill stats.

Alien 3 on the Game Boy is pretty good. It gets more interesting when you finally get a weapon and can shoot (which doesn’t take long), and the various levels are visually very well-drawn. The music is also suitably atmospheric. I think the devs did a decent job with this film license.

More: Alien 3 (Game Boy) on Moby Games