The Mad Predator was a Yautja boss in Alien vs. Predator, the 1994 arcade beat 'em up developed by Capcom. He was one of the Predators captured for the bioweapon experiments of General Bush and infected with a Xenomorph embryo, which drove him insane. He ambushed the heroes on a lift in the Weyland-Yutani laboratories during Round 6, Nightmare in the Lab, and fought them with his wristblades and shoulder cannon. After his defeat he killed himself, and the Predator Warrior and Predator Hunter found the chestburster that had grown inside his body.
Biography
Becoming A Test Subject
The arcade game was set in San Drad, California, where a crashed shuttle had released Xenomorphs and turned the city into one of the Xenomorph outbreaks on Earth. Two cyborg Colonial Marines, Major Dutch Schaefer and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa, fought through the city alongside two Predators, the Predator Warrior and the Predator Hunter. Arcade guide material stated that the Predators who did not join the heroes were captured by General Bush and used as test subjects in his search for the ultimate bioweapon. The Mad Predator was one of those captives.
In the experiments the captured Yautja were implanted with Xenomorph embryos. According to the same guide text, the infection amplified the power, speed and bloodlust of the Predators and left them ready to fight friend or foe to the end. The Mad Predator was a host impregnated by a Facehugger, and as the embryo grew inside him he turned on everyone around him, including the Yautja who had come to fight the outbreak. He had been a comrade of the Predators who fought beside the Marines, and his fate gave them a personal reason to pursue the people behind the San Drad breeding program.
Ambushing The Heroes On The Lift
Round 6 began when the heroes used an APC to break into the laboratories, which were guarded by heavily armed Colonial Marines. After a jammed elevator and a breakout of Xenomorphs from their containment tanks, the team reached the lift that led up toward the station. As the lift climbed, the Mad Predator dropped down from above and landed in front of them, while an on-screen counter tracked the height of the lift in feet. In a playthrough as Linn Kurosawa, she asked whether this Predator was their enemy before the fight began, and the battle carried on into the station at the top of the shaft.
In a single-player game the Mad Predator fought alone, without the drones or soldiers that came with the other bosses of the game. When two or three players were in the game, a second Mad Predator decloaked and joined in, so the team faced a pair of infected hunters. Unlike the playable Predator Warrior and Predator Hunter, the Mad Predators wore no bio-masks and carried no spears. Players who chose one of the playable Yautja ended up in a Predator versus Predator fight, and the two heroes partly switched to their own Yautja language during the battle.
Turning The Blade On Himself
When the heroes finally beat him, the Mad Predator rose to his feet one last time. In a playthrough as the Predator Warrior, he said "Be seeing you" and then drove a blade into his own body, killing himself and the creature inside him at the same time. The weapon was a ceremonial dagger, and he found some honor in death despite his broken mind. The round then ended with a screen announcing that the stage 6 boss had been destroyed, with his body lying on the floor of the station while the score bonuses were counted.
In the scenes that followed, Dutch and Linn worked out that the army was moving the aliens to its docking port for transport into orbit. The Predator Warrior and Predator Hunter then stood over the body of their comrade, whose chest had been torn open by the chestburster in a pool of green Yautja blood. One of them explained that he had been parasitized by the aliens, and the Yautja told the Marines that their military was using his tribe to develop its weapons. The discovery sent the team on toward the ship of General Bush in the final round.
Because it grew inside a Yautja host, the creature was a Predalien, seen in the game only at the chestburster stage. The Mad Predator counted as an Infectoid, the name the game gave to hosts who still moved and fought with an embryo inside them, though he kept more tactical thinking than ordinary Infectoids. Fan writing has also grouped him with bad blood Predators, although the game itself presented him as a captured comrade of the heroes rather than an outcast from his clan.
Weapons & Traits
The Mad Predator fought with wristblade attacks that could be chained into combos for heavy damage, and a strategy guide on GameFAQs described his total energy as equal to that of two Power Loaders. His shoulder cannon dealt more damage than the cannons of the playable Predators, aimed some shots with a red three-dot laser and could fire three plasma bolts in a row from the bars of the lift. He could also switch on his cloaking device, but while cloaked he attacked only with the cannon, and a single hit switched the cloak off again.
The Xenomorph embryo growing inside him did not stop him from fighting with skill or planning his attacks. Guide text for the game stated that the infection amplified the power, speed and bloodlust of the captured Yautja. He moved quickly around the arena and ran along the rails of the lift, which made him harder to hit than most enemies. Players who saved a Smartgun dropped by soldiers earlier in the round could drain his health quickly, and defeating him was worth 50,000 points.
Becoming A NECA Action Figure
NECA released the Mad Predator as an action figure in its Alien vs. Predator Arcade Appearance line, which began shipping to retailers at the end of December 2018 and reached stores in January 2019. He came in a Predators assortment alongside the playable Predator Warrior and Predator Hunter, and Dutch and Linn figures followed in the same line. The figure stood about eight inches tall, used the super-poseable Ultimate Predator body with more than 30 points of articulation and came in a window box with artwork from the arcade game.
The paint deco recreated the pixel look of the arcade sprites, with light and dark blue skin, fishnet over the body, painted teeth and fangs, black hair and a skeleton trophy necklace. He came unmasked, as in the game, with a shoulder mounted cannon, a left gauntlet that opened to show its computer and a retractable double blade on the right gauntlet. His accessories were a Facehugger and a chestburster painted in the same 8-bit style, both tied to the infection that drove the character mad in the game.
Conclusion
The Mad Predator was a Yautja captured by General Bush and infected with a Xenomorph embryo in the San Drad laboratories of the 1994 Capcom arcade game. The infection drove him to attack the heroes, including the Predators of his own kind, on the lift to the station in Round 6. He fought with wristblades, a shoulder cannon and a cloak, and he was one of the hardest bosses in the game. After his defeat he killed himself with a blade, and the chestburster found in his body revealed what the breeding program had done to the captured Predators.
Appearances
- Alien vs. Predator (arcade, 1994)
- Alien vs. Predator Arcade Appearance action figure by NECA (2019)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Games | Yautja Outcasts | Predator Lore
