Alien Soldier

Alien Soldier is a Run n' Gun game released for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1995. The game recieved physical releases in Japan and Europe but North America had the game distributed via the Sega Channel service.

Plot
''The year is 2015. The planet Sierra is gripped by fear and is the midst of a deep crisis.''

''The evil terrorist group, Scarlet, are still a commanding force. They have the power to prevent humans travelling to and from the outside universe.''

''Scarlet's members consists of artificial beings created using super genetic engineering by the Sierrans. Scarlet is an underground organization that has been secretly formed with the express intention of destroying the human race.''

''In addition to their high level of intelligence and awesome strength, Scarlet's members are equipped with parasitic abilities that allow them to live within human beings, animals and machinery. Equipped with these abilities they conquered the Sierrans and stand on the brink of obtaining supremacy over Sierra.''

''Epsilon-Eagle, the boss of the Scarlet group, is the intended target of an assassination attempt being planned by Sierrans. A special combat group capable of using super powers, was secretly dispatched to carry out this mission.''

''Scarlet unleashed a sudden attack on Epsilon with their super powers. Epsilon, seriously damaged by the attack, was thrown into the time-space continuum which had been activated by Scarlet's use of super powers.''

''With Epsilon seemingly gone forever, XI-Tiger took control of Scarlet admist the resulting confusion. With XI-Tiger now in charge, the terrorist attacks against Sierrans became more frequent and brutal.''

''With this increase in attacks towards Sierrans, XI-Tiger soon became unpopular amongst Scarlet members. As a result, the demands for the re-instatement of Epsilon as the leader of the Scarlet group became stronger.''

''Having been isolated from the other Scarlet members, XI-Tiger decided to assasinate Epsilon. In an attempt to activate the time-space continuum, XI-Tiger ordered an attack on the Sierrans'  research laboratory, where children with super powers were being held hostage having been kidnapped.''

''XI-Tiger sensed something was wrong. He could feel the presence of Epsilon in one of the boys. However, he was unsure because he couldn't pinpoint the evil from Epslion, who had entered the boy's body and was now living as a parasite inside of him. In an attempt to get Epsilon out of the boy's body, XI-Tiger took a young girl hostage and threatened to kill her unless Epsilon released the boy.''

The boy flew into a rage and morphed his body into Epsilon.

Suddenly, where the boy had been standing, now stood a 'birdman' with steel wings.

Epsilon's mind was in conflict as a battle between it's real nature, human justice and the foreign force raged on.

XI-Tiger could sense an unknown power within Epsilon, and fled immediately having killed the girl first.

 ' XI-Tiger, I will never let you get away.' Epsilon uttered.

''Epsilon is not the only creature of his kind. Somehow another 'birdman' with a similar body had been created. Although their bodies were identical, their minds were very different. Unknown to everybody, the mind of the mysterious new 'birdman' was filled with an evil ambition.''

He also flew off in search of XI-Tiger............

Gameplay
Alien Soldier is a run-‘n-gun game with heavy emphasis on boss battles, and is reknown for it's intense difficulty.

The player takes on the role of Epsilon-Eagle as he shoots his way through the levels, with Epsilon capable of running, hovering, double jumping, teleport dashing and standing on ceilings for movement options, whilst he has access to six different ammo types, each with limited ammunition. These are:


 * Buster Force: A rapid-fire blast weapon
 * Flame Force: a short-ranged but powerful flamethrower. Essentially a recreation of the Fireball power-up from Gunstar Heroes.
 * Sword Force: a laser beam-like blast that shoots straight ahead.
 * Ranger Force: A scatter-shot blast that fires forward and spreads out in three different directions.
 * Homing Force: Fires fiery blasts that home in to opponents.
 * Lancer Force: A laser blast that shoots in slower spurts, but does considerable damage.

When at full health, Epsilon's teleport dash allows him to become an infernal phoenix, annihilating everything in his path as he dashes.

When being fired at, Epsilon can perform a Counter Force ability which allows him to transform incoming projectile attacks into life energy.

Similar to Gunstar Heroes, players can choose between fixed shot or free shot styles allowing for either more accurate shots in eight angles, or the ability to shoot whilst running, although the player can switch between the two styles on the fly with the click of a button instead of choosing their preferred gameplay style first.

After each stage section, Epsilon will come face to face with a boss battle. These boss sections are considerably longer than the stage sections. Multiple of the bosses have distinctive boss music, but some use the stage’s theme.

Trivia

 * Hideyuki Suganami stated that he created this game wanting to make everything himself from the programming to the graphics.
 * In the same interview as above, Hideyuki Suganami states Alien Soldier had to be rushed out due to the Mega Drive's lifespan coming to an end and it was in a half finished state. Its difficulty hadn't been as balanced as originally planned as a result, and many bosses and sprites were left unused.
 * In Gunstar Heroes, there is a boss called Seven Force. Alien Soldier has a boss based on it and their boss themes are identical.