Review: Aliens: The Video Games and Its Xeno Adaptations

Aliens: The Video Games, a 176-page book by writer Mike Diver, sets out to document every game ever built on the Alien franchise — and there are more of them than most players realize. Published by Pen and Sword Books, the book spans from an unlicensed 1982-era Commodore PET title all the way up to the anticipated Alien: Isolation 2.

Why a whole book on Alien games?

Alien has been adapted into video games more times than almost any other film franchise, stretching across more than four decades of hardware. Diver's book is the first attempt to collect that full history in one place. One gap readers may notice: Fireteam Elite 2 doesn't appear, but that's simply because it was announced after the book had already been completed.

Diver isn't working alone. Andy Kelly, author of Perfect Organism, contributes the foreword, and Diver supplements his own knowledge with quotes from developers throughout. The publisher has used this large-format, image-heavy approach before, with titles like The History of Pokemon Games and The Most Relaxing Video Games.

Organized by film, not by year

Rather than a strict release-order timeline, Diver splits the book thematically, which arguably makes it easier to dip into:

• Chapters one through three cover games based on Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 respectively
• Chapter four gathers miscellaneous movie tie-ins
• Chapter five covers wholly original games
• Later chapters tackle the AvP and Predator titles, Xenomorph cameos in other franchises, and games inspired by Alien — including Metroid, Halo, and Contra

That film-by-film structure means if you want to trace every Alien 3 adaptation, you can jump straight to the relevant chapter.

The Alien 3 deep dive

One of the book's most interesting sections deals with the 1992 Alien 3 adaptations. The film posed a genuine problem for developers: it deliberately stripped things back after James Cameron's action-heavy sequel, featuring a single Xenomorph and no weapons — hardly natural raw material for an action game. The solution, according to Diver's account, was that developers largely ignored the movie's premise altogether.

He also compares the Mega Drive and SNES versions of the game, and shines a light on Alien 3: The Gun, the arcade light-gun title he positions as the unsung hero of the film's adaptations.

Where the spotlight falls

Unsurprisingly, the franchise's biggest hits get the most space. Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation receives several pages of history and commentary, and Aliens: Infestation on the DS — a cult favorite — gets its due as well.

The book is out now via Pen and Sword Books. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the franchise's gaming history, it offers a fuller picture of just how deep the Alien catalogue runs — and with Alien: Isolation 2 on the horizon, it's likely to keep growing.

Source: Nintendo Life