#35 - Alpha Mission

Ah SNK - before the days of $200 cartridges



Don't worry, your sheeld will protect you from the enemees.

The word "alpha" can be used to refer to something as the first in order of importance; the "alpha" male as an example. Well, in a "group" of early NES shooters - many of which are certified arcade classics, like Galaga - Alpha Mission asserts itself with its name, boldly proclaiming that it contains the priority mission over those other chump shooters. At least, SNK would like to think so. Instead of being the cream of the Nintendo crop of shooters, Alpha Mission is like that kid who thinks he's tough, but continuously gets beaten up by the school bullies when he tries to join their gang.

You are Syd, the renegade ship with everything to prove and nothing to lose. When you're not spouting off cliche's at your commanding officer or girlfriend, you're destroying foes on the front lines. Spinning circles, flying hairbrushes, homing missiles - your world is a dangerous place. You use the 'A' button to fire haphazardly into the night and the 'B' button to destroy the obstacles on the "ground"; Xevious anyone? By destroying obstacles, you gain power-ups to help you on your quest. According to the Alpha Mission FAQ on GameFAQS, written by the brave soul PianoChampion90, power-ups do a variety of different things. All I saw them do was upgrade my weapons a smidge and make my ship move a bit faster. Granted, this was good, but I don't know where the PianoChamp is getting some of this information. You go through each mission, hoping to reach the "omega," but the game doesn't end until the horrendous twelfth level before finally just repeating itself in a loop. Ah, old arcade conversions.

Speaking of which, yes, this was an arcade game and I'd like to think that, because it was made by SNK, it's a half-way decent arcade game. Unfortunately, I only got a chance to play the NES version and it didn't bring any form of a smile to my face; only the occasional smirk and the ever-constant frown. I suppose you could play worse shooters; I have no examples, but I'm sure they exist. You could also play much better ones, though, like the aforementioned Galaga or Xevious. As the gang of bullies might say, "Go home until you can fight, kid."

D