Alien Storm
Introduction
Alien Storm was developed and published by Sega, originally released as an arcade game in 1990 before being ported to the Genesis, blending run-and-gun shooting with beat ’em up combat across a campaign fighting off an alien invasion of Earth. Players choose from three members of the Alien Busters team, each with a distinct weapon and fighting style, battling through side-scrolling stages that alternate between straightforward shooting sections and a handful of first-person rail-shooter interludes where players blast approaching aliens from a fixed viewpoint, a genre-blending structure uncommon for the era. Stages ranged from ordinary suburban streets and shopping malls overrun by extraterrestrial creatures to more overtly science-fiction alien environments, giving the campaign a steadily escalating sense of scale as the invasion spreads. Its mix of gunplay, melee combat, and the occasional shooting-gallery segment gave Alien Storm a distinctly varied pace compared to more straightforward contemporaries, and while it never reached the same fame as Sega’s flagship arcade ports like Golden Axe or Streets of Rage, it remains a well-regarded, if lesser-known, entry in the Genesis’s alien-invasion action catalog.
↑ = up
→ = right
↓ = down
← = left
Z = A Button
X = B Button
A = X Button
S = Y Button
Q = L Button
E = R Button
Shift = Select
Enter = Start
