Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection
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Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection Media
Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection • Launch Trailer
Alien Breed - Official 35th Anniversary Collection Announcement Trailer
Critic Reviews for Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection
In the end, Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection feels like a litany of missed opportunities all wrapped up into one disappointing package. Not only were many of the games included in this compilation not all that great to begin with to put it mildly, but the absolute lack of any kind of real performance improvements, coupled with some truly annoying user experience flaws, mean that this package remains solely the vintage of those who either remain obsessed with the Alien Breed franchise, or simply want to see if, nostalgia aside, the games were as subpar as they remember them.
Today, the structure seems repetitive, the rhythm mechanical, and the difficulty less calibrated than nostalgia would have us remember .
Review in Italian | Read full review
Most of my complaints come from what this isn’t instead of what this is, and what this is is a very good collection of some really great games.
I’m not going to pretend that every game featured in this collection is a must play. In fact, some of them are quite terrible. Still, Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection is an interesting way to experience the entirety of an underrated series, complete with improved controls, performance, and some welcome quality of life enhancements. Old school fans and anyone looking for a gaming history fix should have a blast with this collection. Just stay the hell away from Alien Breed 3D. Stick to its sequel.
Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection is exactly the sort of release retro fans will appreciate - an important part of Amiga and UK gaming history that adds enough modern touches to make going back painless.
Outside of the above-mentioned tweaks to the games, the emulation really hasn’t been touched that much, meaning the games all have differing levels of “rough” to them visually. Minimal options to tweak this and a lack of online matchmaking do hold this package back in the end. Fortunately, the museum area of the game is exceptional, and if you happen to vibe with the gameplay loop of the series, you’ve got four incredibly solid (albeit basic by today's standards) titles, plus two curious FPS games that are best considered extras. I enjoy Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection as a package. There is a lot of fun to be had here, and it’s worth the asking price for putting these classic titles into a much easier format to play. This isn’t going to be for people who aren’t as into retro games that feel of their time to some degree, as the gameplay is firmly stuck in their original era, so your enjoyment of arcade titles like Gauntlet and Smash TV are really going to gauge how well you take to this celebratory title. With some great additions and a few baffling omissions, I can ultimately recommend Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection for retro enthusiasts. For more casual modern gamers, it might be worth waiting for a sale.
Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection is exactly the sort of release that reminds you why preserving old games matters. Yes, the graphics are ancient. Yes, some of the controls and gameplay mechanics feel dated. Yes, younger gamers who have grown up with modern shooters may wonder why anyone would willingly play a game with CRT effects on their monitor screen. But that’s not really what this collection is about. It’s about remembering! 35 years after Alien Breed first appeared, it’s quite something to be sitting here playing it again. The developers have done a good job of adding modern conveniences without completely messing with what made the originals special. Modern controls, save states, visual options, online multiplayer and new modes make the games much easier to enjoy today, while the original versions remain at the heart of the package. You start the game, hear those familiar sounds, see those chunky pixels and suddenly you’re 15 again, except now your knees hurt. Instead of worrying about whether your mum is going to tell you to turn the computer off, you’re worrying about paying your mortgage. Alien Breed might be 35 years old, but the little bugger still knows how to make you smile. For old-school gamers who remember the Amiga era, the Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection is a genuinely enjoyable trip down memory lane and a great reminder of just how much fun games could be before everything needed a 100GB installation. You don’t find yourself needing to source a new M.2 drive to play this! I give Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection the Thumb Culture Platinum Award!
