Lost 'Aliens' Video Game Discovered

Running around as Ellen Ripley, flamethrower/grenade launcher in hand, blowing away aliens. It seems like such a natural transition to a video game. And though the first two films in the Alien franchise did have games come to home computer, Commodore 64, and even the stand-up arcade platform, the first time Nintendo or Sega users got to play in the universe was Alien 3. That wasn't the plan though. Twenty-four years ago, a little company called Square, who later made a name for themselves making a tiny series called Final Fantasy, made an 8-bit version of James Cameron's Aliens. It was never released in the United States and was basically forgotten. Until now.

The guys over at 1up.com have come across a version of the game online and played through the entire thing  – in 13 minutes – for our viewing pleasure. Here's how they describe it:

As most licensed games of the time tended to be, Aliens – Alien 2 was a side-scrolling platform game. Players controlled film protagonist Ripley across five levels as she jumped over obstacles, shot up bad guys, and avoided various hazards on her quest to save Newt, which she does after enduring a final boss battle.

According to them, one of the reasons the game never got released in the U.S. is that it was coded for the "Famicom Disk System," a Nintendo add-on that was never made available in the states. There was an "enhanced" version of it released for the MSX, but the version we see here was straight, old-school, 8-bit NES.

The fact that the guys at 1-Up played through this insanely repetitive game in 13 minutes brings back memories of dropping a hard earned 40 dollars at mall on a brand new game, taking it home and it sucking. Still, in retrospect, it's fun to look back on these games fondly.

Head over to 1-Up by clicking the below screen shot so you can watch the videos of the actual game play. Had you ever heard or seen this game? What is the best Alien game ever released?