Original Release: NEC, 1988, Turbografx 16
Other Releases: Wii (2006), PSP / PS3 (2010), 3DS (2014)
Pinball meets HR Giger in this interesting mashup.
Alien Crush (Turbografx 16, 1988, NEC)
Where to Buy: Play-Asia
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
H.R. Giger themed pinball? Hey, I’ll try anything once. This is a pinball simulation, with pulsating brains and alien tentacles and chattering skulls and etc. all over the board. The physics are really pretty good, the game is basically fun – but there’s not a whole lot of meat to it. You’ve got only the one table, two screens high, and the occasional bonus board you can pop into to smash skulls for extra points and whatnot. There’s really not a whole lot going on on the table – just a couple of bonus ramps, a few bumpers, occasional creature popping out here and there. The only other options the game features are a choice of speed (fast or slow) and you can pick from one of two pieces of music to play (both are OK, but I can’t resist ‘Devil’s Undulate’ personally). Having a leaderboard of some sort would have been a natural choice for the Wii but, of course, there isn’t.
It’s an interesting little curiosity and certainly not a bad game, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but pinball buffs – the casual gamer will probably lose interest fairly quickly.
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