Aliens Infestation

by Sega

• Enter the eerie, atmospheric world of aliens, inspired by the film series, where any moment could bring death
• Choose up to 20 Colonial Marines, with distinct personalities, to form a powerful squad to fight alongside
• Wield authentic weapons, including the pulse rifle, smart gun and flamethrower, and unleash your fury in exciting combat
• Use cover and blindfire to outshoot Xenos or sneak through Sulaco in stealth missions as you watch out for Xenos in the dark
• Race to your comrades' rescue in five real-time minutes before they are implanted with Xenos

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B005C2QSDY
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches ; 2.4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 11, 2011
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,430 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #33 in Video Games > Nintendo DS > Games > Action

Product Description

Amazon.com

Inspired by the film series, Aliens: Infestation brings you back to the action-packed and terrifying environments where no one can hear you scream. Featuring authentic environments full of horror, suspense and action, including the Sulaco and LV-426, Aliens: Infestation immerses you in a world where death lurks around every corner. At terror's peak, you and your comrades must battle hordes of vicious Xenomorphs and rescue captured teammates. Are you ready for the dreaded tension and chaos encountered at each level?

Enter the world
of the Xenomorphs

See classic environments
from the movie series

2D sidescrolling gameplay

Synopsis

Enter the eerie, atmospheric world of aliens, where any moment could bring death. Choose up to 20 Colonial Marines, with distinct personalities, to form a powerful squad to fight alongside as you try to defeat the vicious Xenomorphs. Wield authentic weapons, including the pulse rifle, smart gun and flamethrower, to engage in adrenaline-pumping combat. Use cover and blindfire to outshoot Xenos or sneak through Sulaco in heart-racing stealth missions as you watch out for Xenos in the dark. Race to your comrades' rescue in five real-time minutes before they are implanted with Xenos. Experience a variety of storylines and dialogue depending on which Colonial Marines you choose for your team. Immerse yourself in the 2D side-scrolling gameplay with a classic arcade feel coupled with heavy combat and an extensive narrative for a hardcore, retro gaming experience.

Key Features:

• Enter the eerie, atmospheric world of aliens, inspired by the film series, where any moment could bring death
• Choose up to 20 Colonial Marines, with distinct personalities, to form a powerful squad to fight alongside
• Wield authentic weapons, including the pulse rifle, smart gun and flamethrower, and unleash your fury in exciting combat
• Use cover and blindfire to outshoot Xenos or sneak through Sulaco in stealth missions as you watch out for Xenos in the dark
• Race to your comrades' rescue in five real-time minutes before they are implanted with Xenos
• Experience a variety of storylines and dialogue depending on who you choose for your team
• Immerse yourself in the 2D side-scrolling gameplay with a classic arcade feel coupled with heavy combat and an extensive narrative for a hardcore, retro gaming experience

Product Description

Product InformationAliens Infestation DS... Immerse yourself in the Aliens universe on Nintendo DS in this action-packed platform shooter with a hardcore retro feel and a deep storyline that tailors itself to your game. Lead your own specially selected team of Colonial Marines into action to rescue captured comrades and battle hordes of Xenomorphs with a vast array of weaponry from the legendary Aliens film title. Can you handle the tension and terror which meets you at every level?Product FeaturesEnter the eerie atmospheric world of aliens inspired by the film series where any moment could bring deathChoose up to 20 Colonial Marines with distinct personalities to form a powerful squad to fight alongsideWield authentic weapons including the pulse rifle smart gun and flamethrower and unleash your fury in exciting combatUse cover and blindfire to outshoot Xenos or sneak through Sulaco in stealth missions as you watch out for Xenos in the darkRace to your comrades' rescue in five real-time minutes before they are implanted with XenosRecruit up to twenty individual Colonial Marines with distinct personalities each designed by famed comic artist Chris Bachalo. Race to rescue captured comrades in five real-time minutes before they are implanted with Xenos.Storyline and dialogue will change depending on who you have chosen for your team. Who will be able to stand up to the Xeno horde - and who will be dragged away to the hive?Wield authentic weapons from the films including the pulse rifle smart gun flamethrower and more. Use cover and blind fire to outshoot Xenos or sneak through the Sulaco in stealth missions - but watch out for Xenos lurking in the dark.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Nearly Canceled Gem. October 23, 2011

By Pat Centimole

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Here is a game that was almost canceled, when I saw a video demo of it, it looked promising, which disappointed me when I heard it got canceled. Luckily, they eventually did release it.

Story- You're a squad of Marines whose mission is to: "board the USS Sulaco (the spaceship from the movie Aliens), locate and identify the life forms, then secure and extract them back to the USS Sephora."

Gameplay- If you played Alien 3 this game plays like that, but without a time limit. This game is a 3rd person shooter where you hunt for weapons and item to open doors to progress further into the game. You play as one Marine at a time, but you have 4 Marines in a squad, (sort of like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES) and when one dies you can replace them by finding other Marines in the world. With a total of 19 Marines (4 you start with) all with different sprites.

You can only carry two weapons at a time, one of those is always the pistol, so your reduced to only being able to carry only one main weapon at a time. You can switch out this main weapons at the save areas. Included with the two weapons you carry, you have explosives: grenades and C4.

Controls- Plays like other shooters like Contra but with a unique way of aiming and shooting. When shooting you get locked, shooting in that direction. So if your facing right and start shooting and press left you will walk backwards while still shooting right, unlike other games where you shoot where you press the on the D-Pad. To reload there is no button, you have to use the touch screen and press the weapon that you are using picture....

You can run, jump, crouch, climb, cover against boxes, and also included is very useful roll where you can dodge pass an enemy with out taking damage(This is useful especially against bosses).

Graphics: When comparing graphics it should be relative, not to the most top-of-the-line system available; This game is a 2D game and the graphics should be compared to other 2D games. The sprites and backgrounds are very detailed and with special effects like parallax-scrolling. The animation on characters have more frames for more realistic movements. Also at some parts in the background, you can see animation of aliens attacking some marines. Also there are portraits of all the characters in a comic book art style, which I like.

Sound and Music- Authentic sounds from the movie are included, like the sting when the girl opens her eyes and the distinctive gunfire. The end credits play a shorten version of the song "Requiem" by Holy Light of Demons, which I really like.

Replay-ability- The game is a little short, I felt it could have been at least 3 more parts and bosses longer.
You have 19 characters to play the game through, only the dialogue and sprites are different between them, no special stats or attributes.
Also have a "Knife Trick" mini-game, if you seen the movie you'll know how this game is played, but with the stylus instead of a knife.

No online multiplayer co-op.

Recommendation- If you're a fan of the Alien series and like shooters with some exploration I highly recommend this game. This is a game that meets my expectations of a good Alien game, only thing I can fault it is it's a little short. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshingly Original Licensed Release September 6, 2012

By Travis "The LD" Murphy

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

It is refreshing to play a 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania that does not just rest on its laurels of being old school and instead becomes something that rightfully stands on its own. Aliens: Infestation immediately captures gamers using its well-crafted dark pixel art and the unrelentingly eerie atmosphere that quickly reminds one of what made exploring Super Metroid's world mysterious and dreadful at the same time. The small screen space on the DS actually works in the game's benefit as the player never knows what may come lunging at them from the distance, forcing gamers to be ready for any horror to pop out from the darkness at all times. Whenever the xenomorphs come for human blood the game kicks into full gear with punchy action that deftly delivers for the Alien name. The aliens themselves act befittingly crafty using camouflage, obstacles, tight rooms, as well as their own speed, maneuverability, and numbers to panic players into blowing through their ammo reserves trying to take the bastards down. It truly does feel like the player is taking part of an Alien movie on their Nintendo DS!

Thankfully while the marines' arsenal is limited, each gun is effective in its own way.... The classic Pulse rifle is weak in stopping power but has a beefy clip and a deadly grenade launcher; the trusty shotgun is slow and limited in range, but terrifically powerful; the flamethrower can burn multiple targets and recharges ammunition, but takes time downing larger aliens; the Smart gun gives players a balance of great firepower and range, but drains stamina quickly when running, takes some time to spin up, and has a nasty side-effect of spraying acidic Xenomorph blood (that appropriately damages the player); the pistol is the standard pea shooter with unlimited ammunition; and finally grenades and C4 are mainly used to clear obstacles, but can be weaponized as well. No one weapon is perfect for all situations and players can carry only one main weapon with them until they reach another save station, encouraging the player to try learn different techniques for different situations. They will need all the firepower they can get too, as the fight for survival is further intensified when the life of their marine is really on the line. If they die that is it for that soldier, cutting your squad down a man till they find another survivor to fill his spot. In a neat twist, sometimes marines may get a second chance by being captured by the xenomorphs and held in a (usually heavily guarded) nest, giving the players a limited time to rescue their comrades before they die, but this is still risky as the marines may or may not have been "facehugged" leaving a gruesome surprise to inattentive players.

Sadly though, all the suspense and action comes at a cost in the exploration department. This is not all too bad in itself as it circumvents excessive backtracking, but the game lands in the grey area of requiring too much exploration to be a completely linear experience, yet too little to be sustainably enjoyable. Moreover, Infestation has a nasty habit of running full steam only to suddenly jerk the chain back from the player and abruptly demands they find a keycard to progress any further. The uneven pacing coupled with Infestation's troubled development history alludes to there being many elements of the game that were either unfinished or outright cut from of the game. For example, the game prides itself on its multitude of characters to play as, each with their own superb art and unique dialogue in the story, proclaiming that each play through will be different with per character. This is true to an extent and some characters, such as "Beta", an airheaded 4Channer, and "Bonesaw", a gun-kissing deranged weapons instructor, are particularly fun with their banter and neat little idle animations, but that is really all there is to it! On screen they look just the same outside of having different colored armor, skin tones, and slightly different grunts and screams. While this is understandable considering how much sprite work would had to be done to give them all unique animations, it is undeniably jarring for the female characters or characters that are supposed to be larger or smaller than others (notably for two with those features being an element of their personality). This effectively makes the players' other three squad mates nothing more than extra lives unless they plan to change between them often. Adding skills or unique gameplay traits across characters would have made choosing their squad much more fun and interactive. On top of this, the story does not quite give the characters enough room to shine outside of key moments; this is mainly due to the story that plays its cards rather safe throughout. It is perfectly fine for anyone who is not terribly invested in the Alien franchise, but it does not give fans of the series much to chew on outside of some interesting bits from Gibson's Alien 3 script.

This is serviceable and by no means game-breaking in the scheme of things, but it leaves just enough for the player to wish more was invested into the game to make it all that much better and this theme carries over on other aspects as well. For example, the lack of custom control mapping is a missed opportunity. To be fair the controls are placed fine for the most part, but the lack of a reload button, instead constricting players to reload via the touch screen, which also holds the map on another screen, is terribly infuriating in the heat of battle. This is especially apparent in the boss battles, which in all actuality are not terribly challenging compared to the rest of the game, relying on tons of health, high damage output, and weak spots that are annoyingly difficult to hit to serve as any sort of challenge. In fact, save for one that can only be defeated in a particularly Alien fashion, they all basically share the same pattern with hardly any variation. Most of the difficulty from this game stems from the swarms of enemies that slowly chip away from your health bar as you try to make it to the next save room to heal up and these are usually far apart from one another. This is actually quite invigorating, one slip-up could spell your doom making for some investing gameplay, but then Infestation taunts players by haphazardly putting tons of supplies uselessly near save rooms for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Exploring maintenance shafts tends to be your only hope for health packs or ammo when stuck between save rooms, but this is risky because the shafts may house alien nests, yet at the same time they could also have valuable weapon upgrades (or giant mazes leading to nothing when the level designers feel particularly wicked). Again, this is great for the most part, but these shafts are so unevenly spread out in the world, players will travel long stretches of hallways without relief followed later by areas with useless caches of ammunition when none is needed. The music on the other hand is fittingly atmospheric (if a tad bland), but it becomes horribly tiresome when entering a new area resets the song to the beginning instead of smoothly transitioning. The APC shmup section especially deserves to be mentioned; by all means this should have been the badass scene in the game players would fondly recall upon, much like the hover-cycle chase in Contra III: The Alien Wars (no horrid pun intended), but there is one key difference between the two. Whereas the hover-cycle in Contra III is small and the hitbox remains on the player, the APC is huge (nearly two screens long to be precise!!) and its hitbox is all over the place! To solve this, the developers made this section technically impossible to fail, but this still could have been so, so much more enjoyable.

Finally, a complaint commonly lobbied against Infestation is that it is too short, but this is actually something that the game handles perfectly fine! The game always has the player doing something, inspecting new areas, and even when coming back to old areas it has a tendency to surprise players by making previously safe rooms hold nasty surprises just randomly enough that they can never quite predict it. There is never a moment in the game that feels padded out for artificial length, an agonizingly common theme in many of today's "AAA" games. The actual problem concerning the game's length is that there is not terribly much replayability outside of seeing different lines of dialogue with different marines. There is no new game+, no official implementation for speed running, and nothing to collect besides finding all the marines and a charming (if random) Knife Trick mini-game. Yet all said and done, these are all imperfections; they are great for the most part but lacking in a few areas making it fall just short of perfection. It is a shame these elements are not as refined as they could have been, but that does not make the game unplayable! Quite to the contrary really, this game is so recommendable because it tries to be so much more than just your typical licensed game and through its genuine efforts it becomes a game that does not need to lean on its license at all. Aliens: Infestation could have been a new IP and it would have been just as great, and in a day and age where licensed games are anything but original, it is something that cannot be recommended enough to both Alien fans and fans of 2D action/adventures in general. The biggest shame with Infestation is that it was delayed so much, had no marketing from SEGA whatsoever, and came out so late in the DS' lifespan that gamers likely have not heard of it, let alone looked into it (this seems to be a trend for Wayforward...). This is truly a tragedy as gamers are really missing out on a 2D Aliens game that finally gets it right. Even considering the issues, the fun of surviving the Xenomorph onslaught is too great to miss out. And while there is a sequel coming out by Gearbox on major consoles in 2013, which will hopefully continue Infestation's open ending, it is a shame it will be a typical modern FPS (complete with Call of Duty stylized points upon killing enemies). Maybe if we are really lucky there will be another game like Aliens: Infestation someday, sequel or not, because there is just something so poetically awesome about an Aliens game inspired by Metroid, which was in turn inspired by Aliens in the first place! Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Portable Version of a Fantastic Franchise January 2, 2012

By Luke Skinner

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I went and got this game today with some gift money from Christmas at my local Best Buy. I must say that I am highly impressed with this game so far. The graphics look pretty slick and the atmosphere is really incredible. It has some great story telling so far, but I have a couple frustrations with the game.

To close the map, you must touch the right side of your touch screen, and honestly, I don't know if it's my fingers, which it probably is, but it can be hard to click out.

Also, this game can be frustratingly difficult. Especially the first queen you face. I always manage to lose someone. But that is not the best reflection of my skill, even though I'm a fairly good shooter game player.

But those are super small details on what is a great game. I wish I could give it closer to a 5 star rating, but it is what it is. Don't let just 4 stars from me fool you. It's a great buy, especially those fans of the Aliens franchise. It provides a great story line with a great setting and feel to it. People aren't joking when they say it is a Metroid-style Aliens game. Everything just feels right with the game. It makes me more excited for Aliens: Colonial Marines coming out early this year!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile April 15, 2013

By Alexander Nichols

Amazon Verified Purchase

This title plays like a long lost Metroid game (Think Metroid 2.75). Find it at a good price; and you'll find yourself quite pleased.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Colonial Marines March 30, 2013

By Evan Moe

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

you know it's really sad when the DS game is a much more satisfying experience than colonial marines. Better Yet, I'll go further. This game should have been considered as the "true cannon" of the franchise, not CM.