''Alien Brigade'' is a horizontally-scrolling

rail shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...

released by

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of computers and video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than two months later when Warner Communica ...

in 1990 for the

Atari 7800 The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it one ...

. Similar in style to ''

Operation Wolf is a light gun shooter arcade game developed by Taito and released in 1987. It was ported to many home systems. The game was critically and commercially successful, becoming one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988 and winning the Go ...

'', ''Alien Brigade'' tells the story of a soldier battling with alien invaders that take over the bodies of fallen soldiers. Despite being released late in the Atari 7800's life cycle, Atari Corporation made more efforts to market the game than it had with other Atari 7800 titles. The game had its own print advertisement and was referenced in Atari's 1990 shooter, ''

Planet Smashers The Planet Smashers are a Canadian ska punk band from Montreal. Since their formation in 1993, they have been a staple of the Montreal music scene. During the third wave of ska, they performed nationally and later internationally, with tours in ...

'' (''Alien Brigade'' would return the favor by advertising ''Planet Smashers''). ''Alien Brigade'' is 144K in size, making it one of the largest commercially released Atari 7800 games.

Gameplay

The game is played from a first-person point of view and scrolls horizontally in two directions as various enemy creatures, possessed soldiers, human vehicles and alien vehicles attack the player character. ''Alien Brigade'' can either be played with the Atari 7800

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

or with an Atari light gun. The game has five levels and four difficulty modes. The initial mission is to rescue hostages from an enemy camp, but the game then progresses to a waterfront battle, an underwater melee, a showdown in an underground mine, and then a final mountaintop battle. Adding to the challenge, the player must be careful not to shoot innocent bystanders. Between levels, the player is briefed by the commanding officer, who advises of the situation and rates the player's performance in the level.

Reception

''Alien Brigade'' was reviewed in the September 1991 issue of Atari's own ''Atari Explorer'' magazine.Atari Explorer, September 1991. Page 61 Funkmaster V of

Wrestling With Ghosts ''Wrestling With Ghosts'' is an American television series about the paranormal that premiered as a web-series on June 30, 2017. Since then, the show's concept won the Destination America nationwide search for a new creative paranormal team. The s ...

reviewed the game on Atari 7800 Forever and gave it a 4 out of 5, and ranks it as the 10th best officially licensed game on the system.

Re-releases

Evercade The Evercade is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by UK company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. Development began in 2018, and the console was relea ...

(2020)

Atari VCS (2021 console) The Atari VCS (codename Ataribox) is a home video game console produced by Atari, Inc. While its physical design is intended to pay homage to the Atari 2600, the new Atari VCS plays modern games and streaming entertainment via a Linux-based op ...

(2022)

References

External links

''Alien Brigade''
manual

at AtariAge 1990 video games Atari 7800 games Atari 7800-only games Light gun games Rail shooters Video games developed in the United States {{rail-shooter-videogame-stub