I tried playing
Athena, y'all. I tried.
The NES version is a
little more fair, but both are absolutely janky messes, especially the NES game. I feel sorry for anyone who had to spend money on this game. Interesting story, though: Many, many years ago my school had a Halloween carnival, and one of the contests was the usual cake walk, except with other prizes. I actually won this game. Seeing as how I didn't have an NES, I had to choose another prize. I still kinda wanted the NES game, though, but all the other kids made sure I didn't get it, I'm sure because they wanted it. Joke's on them!
EDIT: I cheated a little bit and quarter-spammed through
Alien Storm. It's not '80s, it's 1990... but I wanted to play something quick and better than
Athena.
Alien Storm feels a little like a sped-up
Golden Axe, although in my opinion it isn't as good as that game. The original
GA felt quite balanced, despite the arcade setting. Not so much this game, which feels like it was designed first and foremost as a quarter-muncher.
You don't jump in this game, you have a dodge roll. At least with the girl (Karla, I think?). You can take out enemies on the ground, too; you'll often torch them with your flamethrower. Honestly, I'm not sure there are many beat-'em-ups that move quite at this pace. Both you and enemies move very quickly, and even your run feels not much faster than your default walk; you're bookin' it by default!
Thrown into the mix are shooter segments, both side-scrolling and first-person in nature. The former ones are pretty easy. The latter, not so much. Hope you're good at
Operation Wolf-style games, 'cause they throw a ton of stuff at you. Keeping on firing lets you put out a lot of firepower, but also slows down your reticle.
Other than that, there's a little bit of a Ghostbusters vibe, except with aliens instead. There's a lot of really gross enemies, as you'd expect. Stuff explodes and burns quite well, too; the last boss explodes in a shower of gore.
Do I recommend this one? Eh... not particularly. Not terrible, certainly, but I'm sure there are much better brawlers with aliens in them... like
Alien vs. Predator. Go play that instead!
