Alien Sector is a weird arcade shooter set inside an alien spaceship. It’s a scrolling exploration game where you play a girl in a space suit, blasting aliens with some sort of laser cannon. The game was developed by Namco and first appeared in Japanese arcades, under the more pompous, alternative title, “Baraduke“, in 1985.
Player one assumes the role of “Kissy“, and player two plays as “Takky” – two immensely shit character names, if ever there were two… At the beginning of the game some kind of creature appears and says “I’m your friend“, before disappearing. He’s actually the friendly neighbourhood alien who must be rescued.
The aim of the game is to travel downwards, through the alien spaceship, and to the alien boss at the bottom. Who you must beat. Each floor that you pass through gets ever more complex and dangerous. You have a shield that can absorb a certain number of hits before you die, and you’re given three lives to beat the game with.
Alien Sector is not particularly difficult* (at least, not initially), and the controls are a bit weird, with what feels like built-in jitter. I don’t know what the score is with the movement, but it just seemed a little weird to me. Maybe it’s the push scrolling in the game? Which isn’t very smooth.
*= By the end of level one you’re going to be having your arse handed to you, like I was, so I take that back. This game grows in ferocity, and it’s actually very, very tough. 🙂
Shooting alien eggs reveals them as loot crates. Touching a crate will then trigger a random item spawn, not all of which are desirable. When you’ve destroyed all the “alien eggs”, the exit tube will then open, which you must enter. If you’ve picked-up any of those friendly aliens before you leave, you will then get a chance to win (or sometimes even lose) items in a random lottery.
What is interesting about Alien Sector is that the programmers have tried to simulate a low gravity environment, so firing the gun pushes you backwards due to the recoil. You’re not in zero gravity, though, so the effect is subtle. But it does have an effect on gameplay. For example: it’s possible to recoil into an enemy, and lose a life, when you fire. If you’re not entirely careful.
Alien Sector is a decent game, and I recommend it as another great arcade ‘hidden gem’. There’s a lot of “RNG” in it, though. Try quick-saving near a couple of unopened loot crates, then try opening them, then re-loading and doing it again, to see what randomness they give you. Keep doing it to get what you want. 🙂
More: Baraduke on Wikipedia
