Alien Gate

I have seen some pretty pitiful shooter games in my time. There are those that try too hard to be of a certain bane and ultimately fail in terms of execution. Then there are games like Alien Gate, where convention is neither defied nor thrown out the window; it simply isn't even regarded.

Alien Gate has 25 levels, which sounds impressive until you actually experience a level. All you really do is move around the screen and shoot waves of enemies that a creepy floating head emits. The background isn't noticeable in the slightest, as you just shoot the enemies until they're gone. The gameplay feels as though they were trying for an arcade-type experience, but forgot to incorporate the addictive, fun aspect. You could almost view this game as a series of boss fights, as the head spitting out waves of "no-goodnicks" is essentially the boss.

The graphics look pretty sharp, but just aren't what most people are looking for in a shooter. Your "ship" sports arms and legs, and looks more like a goofy cartoon character than an actual spaceship. While the character is quite large and fairly easy to control, its size does make it difficult to dodge enemies at times- or would, if the enemies were challenging. You really have to play this thing for awhile before any sort of difficulty comes to fruition. The first five or six waves of enemies can be defeated without actually moving at all! If your ship is positioned in the center of the screen, you will have no problem for some time. Where's the fun in that?!

There were just too many quirky, un-conventional aspects employed in this game, as well as the CDi in general, to make it recommendable. While I'm all for trying something new and different, I think more feedback from people who actually play videogames could have substantially helped Philips to fine tune this game. Overall, I have to say I'm not satisfied.