
	Platform TurboGrafx-16 Genre Pinball Publisher NEC Developer Compile / NAXAT Soft Released 1988
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Alien Crush

Long before video games, the closest thing people had to such forms of entertainment was probably pinball. Slapping an oversized ball bearing around a wood surface, bouncing it off bumpers, shooting it up ramps, aiming for special targets, all in the name of achieving the highest score possible was incredibly fun. In time, such games saw their electronic equivalent being made for the various video game systems. One such game was Alien Crush for the TurboGrafx-16.

As one might expect by looking at the name, Alien Crush is a science fiction themed pinball game that has players shooting their ball around an alien-infested board. Looking at the appearance of the aliens in the game, it would seem that the developers drew quite a bit of inspiration from the movie Aliens, as there does seem to be an awful lot of xenomorph-esque baddies on the board.

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At its core the game is typical pinball fair, with lots of bumpers to bash into, ramps to ride, and slots to try and get the ball in. The mix is such that players are offered quite a bit of variety in what they can do, and as they rack up points, more and more options open up. One of the neatest is that sometimes players can go to different zones where they must defeat

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special aliens. Some of these aliens are quite large, while others are swarms of tiny ones. The better a player does here, the bigger the points bonus they will get.

For a game made during the 16-bit era, a time when physics engines were the last thing from the average gamer’s mind, the ball in Alien Crush behaves surprisingly well. There aren’t any peculiarly odd bounces, rolls, or deflections. The ball pretty much goes where one would expect it to.

In the end, there really isn’t too much to be said about this game, though. It’s pinball! Alien Crush actually came out on the Wii’s virtual console a while ago, and it’s been keeping me quite busy since then. The game harkens back to simpler times, when high scores were all gamers thought about. It’s an era well worth revisiting, and a great way to kill 15 or 20 minutes to boot.

Mr. Nash

June 24, 2009