I had picked up this game a few months ago, but recently got around to sitting down with the game. I was skeptical, as it was a bargin bin purchase. As a developer, I feel that I should not only play the good games, but the bad ones too, to see why they failed.

That said, I was actually fairly surprised to find that Alien Syndrome is a game that has been needlessly crucified by reviewers. Sure, the graphics are pretty much last gen, but the game concepts aren't bad at all.

At first, the controls were odd, but after sitting down and understanding how they function properly, it became much smoother. The only odd thing with the controls is that lifting or lowering the nunchuck moves the camera angle.  The side puzzles of modifying DNA, cleaning corrupted chests, etc were all interesting to do and easy as long as you follow directions.

The game has a very "Aliens" feel to it, as your character is a female space soldier, and is presented in a top down view. Weapons can be somewhat limited, but you can modify your character to become further enhanced, learn new weapon use, etc. There are modifiable stats to enhance your character as well as crafting systems to create new items, armor and weapons to use.

The enemies themselves are kind of repetitive at first, but as I venture further, I'm sure will vary up and become tougher, as is usually the case with all games.

The music/audio was standard, nothing to write home about.

Overall, for the $15 I paid for it, it wasn't a wasted purchase.

The one saving grace is that it is 4 person simultaneous multiplayer, so it can be played with some friends in the room

Overall, I give it a 7 out of 10, "Not Bad"

It's actually one of the five or so most underrated games on the platform. Anybody that enjoyed Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance and anything else by Snowblind Studios will probably find something to like here despite the PSP port graphics.

I heard the game was horrible, like a 3.0 or something. The graphics probably killed it the most.

I heard Sega ruined another franchise with this title.

Sonic, Nights, Alien Syndrome...whats next? Oh right, Golden Axe this fall...

God I hate you sega for ruining my childhood memories.

a PSP port game gets a 7 from you? I played the PSP version, I wouldn't give anything over 4 on that.

There's more to a game than graphics. Sure, the graphics sucked but there were some pretty cool ideas in the game. As a game developer, I can respect and appreciate that. Sometimes you have to look deep into a game to see why they released it. If you stop at the surface level, you might miss some really good ideas.

It is interesting how, based on the comments of our in-residence developer, seem to be centered on graphics rather than gameplay. (A review of the reviews seem to bear this out.)

It is also interesing that the negative comments seem to be centered on the same thing.

I may have to see if I can find this cheap for a test play.

Mike from Morgantown

I wonder... what are those "really good ideas" in this game? All I saw blend graphics, repetitive gameplay and terrible combat.

You should try Alone in the Dark for 360. the game had great ideas but horrible execution. I liked it for the same reason you listed above...

See, I didnt think the combat was terrible. Sure, it was repetitive (though apparently there are added moves with flicks of the wii remote). An action based game with weapon/item crafting, variants on armor protection (corrupted, heavy leaded, etc) Also, the attributes system of modifying DNA was pretty clever too.

@Disolitude - I definitely plan to check out Alone in the Dark. I was anticipating this game, and kinda bummed about the crappy overall reviews. Will give it a shot either as a rental or when it hits the bargin bin.

@Mike - Yeah, I think that there's SOME game behind the graphics. It's worth a shot. you have to play for a bit and be patient in understanding the rhythm of how the game is structured to work =)