Alien 3: The Gun (1993)
Alien 3: The Gun is a 1993 rail shooter developed and published by Sega for the Sega System 32 arcade. One or two players control unnamed Colonial Marines on a rescue that starts aboard the USS Sulaco and continues through the prison on Fury 161. The title refers to the pulse-rifle controllers mounted on the upright cabinet.
Plot Summary
Two unnamed Colonial Marines boarded the USS Sulaco after a distress call, while the ship hung in low orbit over Fury 161. Facehuggers and adult Xenomorphs filled the decks, and the boss on the ship was a Super Facehugger. When that creature went down, the Marines left in the last EEV. The pod dropped into the scrapyard, and the Sulaco remained in orbit over the prison.
In the scrapyard, robots assembled from the junk fired on the Marines, and they destroyed a tank called the Iron Tortoise before they reached the prison. A tall adult Xenomorph waited at the entrance. Inside, one passage ran through an abattoir, where Chestbursters broke out of hanging carcasses, and the other through the Mess Hall, where Xenomorphs reached down from the ceiling and took prisoners by the head. A Super Dogburster that spat acid blocked the way after either passage, with the Infirmary on the route toward the foundry.
Two doors opened in front of the mold in the Lead Works, one onto more Xenomorphs and the other onto armed androids. Past those doors the Marines drove the Dragon back into the mold, poured molten lead over it, and quenched the metal with water. The quench shattered the Runner, the same lead-and-water kill used on the creature in Alien 3.
After the Dragon, a man in a long coat came through a doorway. The data screen labeled him An Unidentified Man, typed him as human, and left the alpha field and the rank unknown, with a red silhouette in the report box. The coat matches Michael Bishop, the company man who comes to the prison in the film for the Queen embryo. The Marines killed him, and Weyland-Yutani troops who had come for specimens walked in and opened fire. The game ends on that attack.
Gameplay
Alien 3: The Gun moves on a rail in front of a fixed view. One or two players each hold a rifle-shaped gun with a trigger and a bomb button, and the gun kicks on every shot. Holding the trigger drains the POWER bar along the bottom of the screen, and releasing the trigger fills that bar again. A separate LIFE bar tracks hits, and the BOMB counter spends a shot that clears every creature on the screen at that moment.
Shooting crates and fixtures can drop more bombs, a health pickup, or a Flamethrower that empties after a short burst. A prisoner who lives through a wave in the prison rooms restores health. Those pickups are the only change of weapon on the rail, and the clip below shows the cabinet in play.
Release
Sega developed Alien 3: The Gun in Japan and published it in 1993 as an upright System 32 arcade cabinet. One player or two can play, with a second rifle mounted beside the first. The controllers are positional guns modeled on the M41A pulse rifle from Aliens, fixed to the control panel so the rifle's movement aims the shot.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Alien 3: The Gun in its 1 November 1993 issue as the most successful upright and cockpit arcade unit of that month. Jon Thompson at the All Game Guide scored the cabinet four stars out of five, and the review described the shooter as exciting and in keeping with the films.
Stephen Kleckner included Alien 3: The Gun in GamesBeat's must-play edition of Alien games on 7 October 2014, and he preferred it to the 2006 light-gun game Aliens: Extermination. Retro Gamer issue 76, page 24, placed the cabinet beyond other arcade shooters, and the piece named Lethal Enforcers among them.
Conclusion
Alien 3: The Gun is Sega's 1993 System 32 cabinet, and its pulse-rifle guns carry two Colonial Marines through an arcade version of Alien 3. The route runs from the Sulaco to the Fury 161 lead works. After the coat-wearing company man dies, Weyland-Yutani troops open fire, and that attack is where the cabinet ends.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Alien Games | Alien Merchandise
