Video Gaming Blog

Submitted by Gaming Briefs and Nostalgia Bits

Now, what have we here but a recording of the Final Fight style beat-em-up Capcom made based on elements taken from two of 20th Century Fox’s most notable movies, the Aliens series and Predator, and by extension, a comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse during that time. Here’s the recording, in 6 parts:

We have four protagonists available here, including a pair of military officials, and two different kinds of Predator battlers from outer space. The plot first involves a horde-nest of the Aliens crashing on earth in a futuristic city and the mission to destroy the queen. But the story does not end there. The protagonists discover that a renegade military brigade is using them and some members of the Predator tribe to conduct illegal experiments with, and need to stop them as well.

The Major Dutch Shaefer character is based on the one played by Schwartzenegger in the 1987 Predator movie, only here, with a story backdrop that involves a war against the Aliens, he’s depicted as a veteran of that matter, and has a bionic arm to show for it; his right arm was damaged during the battle he was in. The Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa character (possibly a nod to the great director Akira Kurosawa), is definitely one featured in the comic miniseries, though with the way she’s drawn in Capcom’s own art style, you’d think she was a creation of theirs.

The game is certainly a lot more challenging than some of Capcom’s other games made in this format, if you take into account that the aliens here spit out plenty of corrosive slime, and with the way weapons end up being scattered all over the place when you’re dealing with the renegade army, that can actually make it difficult to deal with them most effectively. All the players have their different strengths and weaknesses, and to throw enemies with Linn, you need to be jumping (the enemies don’t have to be doing the same), and grab them while doing so.

It’s interesting how comic book miniseries like the one this was based on took considerable liberty with the Predators, knowing that they were the enemy first time around (and second, recalling that there was a sequel starring Danny Glover), by making them into allies per se here, but the Aliens most certainly do remain the baddies.

This version of the game, by the way, was never ported to home consoles any more than Cadillacs and Dinosaurs because Capcom did not maintain the proper license to do so. Again, that’s why it’s good that the emulator system was invented, so that today, you can enjoy the game there. And a funny thing, by the way, is how, while both movie franchises wore themselves out pretty quickly, they still made for good game and comics fodder in the years after the films were produced.

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