The Game Gear conversion of Sega‘s arcade hit, Alien Syndrome, was developed by SIMS Co., Ltd. and first published in 1992. It’s a decent adaptation, but is for one player only (there’s no two player link-up).

Playing as either a man (Ricky) or a woman (Mary), you must fight your way through four different stages, rescuing trapped crew members and blasting aliens. You have a limited amount of time to complete each level, before a time bomb goes off. Pressing button one brings up a map of the level, with crew members shown as flashing red dots.

To help you there are weapon stations positioned on the walls in certain places. You can identify these by the letters on them (‘L’ for Laser; ‘F’ for Flamethrower; ‘R’ for Regular Shot, and ‘FB’ for Fire Ball). Picking up multiple of the same weapon powers it up to another level, which is very useful. Pick up two Fire Ball weapons and it will start homing in on nasties, for example.

Alien Syndrome on the Game Gear looks great and plays well enough. It’s much easier than the arcade original – especially the boss battles – which is welcomed, although some may find it too easy.

More: Alien Syndrome on Wikipedia