Chronicle #8 - Alien Gate - Review
Chronicle #8
With my job and the Covid-19 who took the whole week, I had to make a last minute chronicle!
Oh damn! What the hell?! Hell? Yeah! Hell! Let's talk about Alien Gate!
SOME HISTORY:
This is not my favourite game, by far, but there is some very cool graphics on it. When Philips was still balancing between the family multimedia player and the gaming introduction, SPC Vision came with a demo of this game and Philips loved it! Very worked graphics for the early 90's.
This is how Alien Gate came to the Philips CD-i, from a scratch demo made by a new programmer that became a SPC Vision employee.
THE GAME:
We are talking about a vertical shoot'em up where you are driving a little spaceship with... hands and foots...? Really?
That's right, nothing to see with the high tech spaceship from the cover.
The control isn't really hard when you are using a gamepad, but as this game was made in 1993, players was mostly using the Thumbstick remote control. And believe me, this is a complete different vision of gaming... to beat the 30 levels!
The intro background sound is pretty cool, like an underwater orchestra sounds. But the game doesn't have any music, just sound effects from the shoots, hits and enemies moving. A very basic game where you get more power shoots when passing each levels.
Each time you are starting a level, a story is telling to you, the story of the game to understand how this war started and the evolution of it. This part of the game was used to entertain the player while the game was loading.
There is no much more I can tell you about this game, unless the team that made it is the same (or part of) as the one who made other games like The Apprentice and Lucky Luke, one of the best CD-i games! An Huge evolution in the gaming and graphics!
You have 3 live when you start the game, but you can win more with your score until a maximum of 5 lives.
In the end, when you lose all your lives and die and can get access to the hall of fame by inserting your name.
The hall of fame is accessible from the main page of the game.
When exiting the game you will get access to the credits of the Alien Gate.
Here are the Level passwords:
Level selection:
Level 05 -> CWOA
Level 10 -> ASJA
Level 15 -> VZOA
Level 20 -> SAKA
Level 25 -> TNNB
A interesting point about the game cover arts is the fact you have 2 different covers, one for the USA and one for the Europe, check this out!
The 3 of the top are the American version, and the bottom 3 are the European version.
Other information:
– 1 player.
– No Digital Video Cartridge required.
– Gamepad recommended.
– 2 different covers (USA/Europe).
CD-i Emulator Compatibility:
Working – Small sound issue at the game menu.
Good Points:
– Good intro music.
– Variety of enemies.
Bad Points:
– No music while playing.
– Easily boring.
– No difficulty levels.
EVULUATION:
Graphics 7/10
Music 3/10
Gameplay 4/10
TOTAL 4/10