The end result is a game that is fast paced, exciting and incredibly fun to learn. Time limits are in place and often strict enough to push aggressive play so you can't just keep your distance and chip away at a boss' health with the homing weapon. The fights are dynamic affairs and less about dodging bullets with the bosses often coming right at you, requiring almost constant movement to find opportunities to get shots in or create space to safely change weapons. Upon a boss fight commencing there is a brief pause as the enemy is introduced before they break into an initial warm-up stance and the game commands you to 'fight'. The boss fights are the main event with short scrolling levels between only really existing to coherently connect one fight to the next and give the player an opportunity to refill health or change/upgrade their weapons. While first impressions may suggest this is a fairly standard side-scrolling shooter, the game is almost more of a unique hybrid between that genre and a fighting game. In my opinion Alien Soldier is Treasure's best game on Sega's 16-bit machine and with it now also available on NSO what better time to revisit it? Many of these ideas feel right at home in the modern gaming landscape to the extent it almost feels like a modern game created in a 16-bit style rather than an actual game from 1995. It is full of clever ideas and it's this that really sets it apart from similar games of the time and establishes it as one of the very best games of the 16-bit era.

It's fairly well known as Treasure are one of the most revered developers for the console and the game has been included on compilations since the PS2 era but it also has a reputation for being very difficult which may well put some people off. Few games on the Mega Drive/Genesis are as underappreciated as Treasure's Alien Soldier.

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