Alien Syndrome
PUTTING THE RUN IN RUN-AND-GUN
» MASTER SYSTEM » 1987 » SANRITSU It’s no secret that videogames generally used to be a lot more difficult than they are today, so it’s not uncommon for me to revisit an old favourite, only to receive the kind of vicious thrashing that makes me worry that I’m past the peak of my gaming powers. Fortunately, games like Alien Syndrome exist to convince me otherwise. I first encountered the Master System conversion of Sega’s run-and-gun as a young child – young enough that I had no awareness of the Alien film series that so clearly influenced it – and I found the game too difficult to be much fun, rarely even reaching the first boss.