Alien vs. Predator: SNES (1993): Full Game Overview

Alien vs. Predator, often called AvP SNES or Aliens vs. Predator SNES in Japan, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up developed by Jorudan and published by Activision for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in 1993, it was the first licensed Alien vs. Predator video game and the starting point for the crossover's long game lineage. The story follows a lone Predator who arrives on the colony world Vega 4, clears the city of New Shanghai, follows the Xenomorph trail to a hive world in the Orion Nebula, and kills an Alien Queen in the finale. The Vega 4 incident remains one of the franchise's most distant hunts in expanded lore, with the action set around the year 2493.

Game Overview

The Vega 4 Predator from Alien vs. Predator on the Super Nintendo

Alien vs. Predator plays like a single-player side-scrolling brawler built around one Yautja hunter rather than multiple species campaigns. The Predator fights through streets, tunnels, starship interiors, and an Alien surface using wristblades, a speargun-style weapon, throwable discs, and a chargeable energy attack. Enemy waves include drones, warriors, facehuggers, chestbursters, and several guardian bosses born from animal hosts, giving the game one of the strangest rosters in the Xenomorph types lineup.

Despite sharing a title with Capcom's unrelated 1994 arcade game, the SNES release stands on its own as a slower, tougher solo hunt through six Vega 4 stages and a final Orion Nebula confrontation. Its cover art and in-game Predator design became one of the most recognizable images in early AvP gaming, even though the game itself is often overshadowed by later shooters such as Alien vs. Predator: Jaguar and Classic.

Plot Summary

The SNES Predator intro cutscene from Alien vs. Predator

The story begins in 2493 on Vega 4, where construction workers digging a subway tunnel in New Shanghai uncovered dormant Alien eggs. The colony was quickly overrun, and a distress signal went out to Earth while also reaching a passing Predator vessel. The hunters had originally planned to hunt humans on Vega 4, but the Xenomorph outbreak offered far more dangerous prey.

The playable Predator cleared New Shanghai and the infested starship that had carried the eggs to the planet, learning that the Xenomorphs had come from the Orion Nebula long ago. He piloted the captured vessel to its source, fought through the hive-covered surface, and defeated the Queen in the last chamber. The ending declared that the galaxy owed the hunter a debt for ending the threat, though the Predator cared only about the trophies and the promise of future hunts.

Key Characters And Locations

The SNES game keeps its cast minimal, focusing on one hunter and the worlds he purges rather than a large human supporting cast.

The Vega 4 Predator - The unnamed playable Yautja hunter who clears Vega 4 and the Orion Nebula hive world.
New Shanghai - The Vega 4 city overrun after subway construction uncovered Alien eggs.
Vega 4 - The frontier colony planet where the first six stages take place.
The Orion Nebula - The Xenomorph source system where the final Queen battle occurs.
The Alien Queen - The agile final boss whose combo attacks make her the game's hardest fight.
Guardian Aliens - Boss Xenomorphs gestated in dolphins, apes, bats, and snakes before the Queen encounter.

Vega 4 And New Shanghai

Most of Alien vs. Predator takes place on Vega 4 after the infestation spreads from the subway tunnel into New Shanghai itself. Stages move through city streets, sewers, industrial zones, and the infested starship whose bridge and observation deck the Predator must purge before leaving the planet. Each area ends with a guardian boss, forcing the player to learn different attack patterns before the hunt can continue.

Vega 4 became an important reference point for later articles on the Vega 4 Predator, one of the few Yautja hunters to visit what fans treat as an early depiction of Xenomorph Prime in the Orion Nebula finale. The colony's sudden collapse also made the game one of the clearest examples of a frontier world wiped out by accidentally uncovered eggs rather than deliberate Weyland-Yutani experiments.

The Orion Nebula Finale

The Orion Nebula hive world cutscene from Alien vs. Predator SNES

After clearing Vega 4, the Predator follows the infestation to a rocky hive world in the Orion Nebula. The surface is coated in resin and filled with warriors, stalkers, and color-variant drones before the hunter reaches the Queen chamber. Expanded lore often treats this world as an early game version of the Xenomorph homeworld, even though later comics and films never confirmed the connection directly.

The Vega 4 Predator fighting the Orion Nebula Queen in Alien vs. Predator SNES

The Queen herself is smaller than many later game bosses but far more dangerous because of her relentless combo attacks. Once defeated, the Predator departs with trophies while the ending text claims the civilizations of the galaxy owe him a debt. That finale became one of the earliest Predator versus Queen fights in licensed gaming and remains a recurring reference in Queen-fight breakdowns.

Our gameplay clip below shows the SNES Queen fight and ending, including the final Orion Nebula battle that closes the first licensed Alien vs. Predator game.

Xenomorphs And Boss Enemies

Alien vs. Predator leaned heavily on variant Xenomorph designs, especially the guardian bosses created when Facehuggers impregnated local animals. Players fought aquatic, ape-like, winged, and snake-inspired Aliens before reaching the standard Queen, giving the game a toy-line energy that later NECA releases would echo. Regular enemies included drones, warriors, stalkers, facehuggers, and chestbursters, making the SNES version one of the densest early showcases of Xenomorph rank variety in a single title.

The Vega 4 Predator relied mostly on melee and short-range Predator weapons, with charged energy attacks reserved for tougher crowds and boss phases. That emphasis on wristblades and close combat made the hunter feel distinct from later playable Yautja in shooters where plasmacasters and cloaking dominated every encounter.

Gameplay And Features

Alien vs. Predator uses a straightforward side-scrolling beat 'em up structure with platforming sections, item pickups, and boss gauntlets. The Predator can slash, shoot, throw discs, and build energy for a laser burst, but health management is strict and enemy swarms arrive constantly. Defeating a guardian Alien unlocks the next stage, keeping the campaign focused even though the overall adventure is relatively short by modern standards.

The Japanese release, titled Aliens vs. Predator, differed from Activision's international version in several ways. The Japanese Predator is orange, moves more slowly, and can run with a double-tap, while the Western Predator is brown, moves faster, and lacks a run command. Japan also included a two-player versus mode with one Predator and one Alien, a feature removed from Activision's export release.

Alien Timeline Placement

Alien vs. Predator is generally treated as expanded-universe material set centuries after the core Alien films. The 2493 setting makes it one of the furthest-forward Predator stories in licensed games, far beyond Ripley's era and even later than many comic or film timelines. Because Vega 4, the Orion Nebula hive world, and the galaxy-wide debt ending never appear in film canon, the game occupies optional crossover space rather than a fixed timeline slot.

Development

Jorudan developed Alien vs. Predator for the Super Nintendo while Activision handled the international publishing deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Information Global Service released the Japanese version in January 1993, with Activision bringing the game to North America and Europe later that same year. The project arrived eight months before Capcom's unrelated arcade game of the same name, which often causes confusion among fans comparing the two 1994-adjacent AvP titles.

Atari later attempted to port the SNES design to the Lynx and Jaguar, a lineage that eventually evolved into Rebellion's completely different first-person Jaguar release. That makes the SNES game not only the first AvP game but also the root of the license's console experimentation before beat 'em ups, shooters, and strategy games split the franchise in different directions.

Release And Reception

Alien vs. Predator launched for the Super Nintendo in 1993 and received mixed reviews at the time. Critics praised the license, mood, and boss variety, but many found the controls stiff, the difficulty harsh, and the Queen fight frustrating because of her unblockable combos. Retrospective opinion has been kinder, especially toward the game's place in history as the first AvP game and the source of the Vega 4 Predator design.

The cartridge has become a collector's item among SNES and Alien fans, while the cover art remains one of the most reused AvP images on the site and in fan communities. It never received a direct sequel, but its name, setting, and hunter legacy carried forward through arcade, Jaguar, and PC successors that each reinterpreted the crossover in a different genre.

Legacy

Activision's 1993 SNES hunt is a solo Predator beat-em-up, not Capcom's arcade team-up. The Vega 4 Predator fights close-range through New Shanghai in 2493 to an Orion Nebula Queen, with wristblades and discs instead of the later cloak-and-caster loop. Jaguar and Classic later took the license into first person.