Alien Hominid
Publisher:
O3 Entertainment
Developer: The Behemoth
Platform: PS2 & Gamecube
Players: 1-4
Genre: Action
Reviewed: PS2 Edition
Once,
in a galaxy very, very near…the FBI shot down a cute little
alien who was just minding his own business and then tried
to cover the whole thing up. With no way off Earth, the
little alien mustered up all his firepower and decided to
kick some Federal Bureau of Investigation butt. Times were
simpler then.
Alien
Hominid has been out for a while now, but we felt it
deserved some extra press because games like Half Life
2 and Doom 3 were
all anyone was talking about when it came out. It would
be a shame for this little gem to not get its moment in
the spotlight.
Originally
born as a flash based game on the internet, Hominid
became so popular it blossomed into full fledged console
game for the masses to enjoy. It should take gamers all
of two minutes to figure out how to play, but hours to master.
Like the 2D side scrolling games of yesteryear, Alien
Hominid is simple yet really difficult. Your little
alien buddy spends more time face down in the dirt than
he does shooting the appendages off of feds.
Similar
in play to Metal Slug or Mega Man, you'll
move your alien through 16 levels of side scrolling action,
shooting and slicing your way to each end boss. You'll have
a variety of weapons and vehicles to commit carnage with
and most have several upgrades available (provided by fat
kids that befriend you). The Behemoth team put a ton of
effort into making the game one of a kind in terms of character
design, art and attitude. It's a blast to play and often
hilarious as well.
Where
Hominid stands apart from the crowd is with its graphics.
The entire game has been hand drawn, giving it a unique
look and feel unlike anything else out there (although it
ventures into the Viewtiful Joe territory).
While
modern games usually try to create a realistic environment
or polish ever corner to a silvery luster, Hominid
has more fun with its design. It's like playing an incredibly
stylized Saturday morning cartoon. The hand drawn characters,
backgrounds, effects, bosses and the power ups are all totally
unique and have a quirky humor to them than keeps the game
fresh.
Hominid's drawbacks are that it
isn't very long (maybe 2-3 hours of solid game play) and
the difficulty will test the patience of even the coolest
gamer. There are a number of mini games to play around with
both alone and with friends, which only add to the value
of the game.
Alien
Hominid isn't so much a throw back to games made a decade
ago as it is the evolution of flash and java based games
that are rampant on the internet today. It's the story of
a little alien that lost his way and the story of a little
game that went big. It would be all to easy for Hominid
to get lost in the gaming shuffle of today's high profile
games, but true gamers looking for a quick and easy fix
should definitely check Alien Hominid out.
Alien Hominid
