Alien Syndrome

Platform: Wii, also PSP.
Verdict: Warrior needs food.
Rating: 2½/5
While building a new life in a new city, there’s nothing like playing a 4-player game on your own to make you miss old friends. Thankfully the 360’s online services help bridge that gap - as the makers of the rather imminent Halo 3 are well aware of, playing a game with friends is almost always better than on your own. Alien Syndrome may not have the online components of this year’s pre-destined hit but it does at least have 4-player co-op too. Beyond that though, it’s bragging rights rapidly diminish.
Remaking their popular 1987 shooter, Sega have attempted to update its simple old school formula by increasing the amount of players that commit alien genocide and by adding stat crunching RPG style elements. Playing more like a dungeon crawler than a frenetic shooter, Alien Syndrome has you blasting your way through an alien filled space ship of repetitious design while upgrading your abilities as you progress.
Updating the twee graphics of yester-year to a 3D vision of the generically gritty industrial future, Alien Syndrome is an ugly, dated looking game that suffers from being a port of a PSP title and is disappointing considering the Wii’s more than capable abilities.
Elsewhere, Sega have tried to justify it’s presence on the Wii by introducing motion controls for melee combat and special moves. While not unwieldy, button presses would more than suffice, making the controls feel unnecessary. What does work well however are the twin stick style controls – using the left stick to move and the Wiimote to point and aim is an intuitive setup and in the right game (like Geometry Wars: Galaxies) could work wonders.
After reading this my friends will probably be thankful we live miles apart because although some fun can be gleaned from this uninspired shooter it’s time that’ll be better spent playing online Gauntlet through rose-tinted spectacles, or Halo 3.