www.jap-sai.com - Alien Crush

Alien Crush is one of those titles that was really big in its day, but now that a few years have slipped by has lost a lot of its charm and appeal. It just simply hasn't aged that well.
It is still worthy of notice though, firstly because it was co-developed by shooting game legends Compile, and also because it really was an extraordinarily popular title back in 1988 - especially in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal; where pinball enjoys a huge cafe sub-culture that was to many extents peaking throughout the 80s. And lastly, it is the forerunner to what many consider to be one of the finest console pinball games ever made: Devil Crash (1990).
And here lies the problem: since it has been completely eclipsed by its sequel, there is absolutely nothing left here but a distinctively routine console pinball fare: one double-screen main table (left), a few bonus rooms (below), and some rather erratic ball physics. In fact, nothing really stands out at all any more - only the H.R. Giger / Alien -inspired backdrops and designs offer anything even remotely of interest.
It still deserves a relatively loud mention in terms of gaming history though: this was THE pinball game in its day, not to mention a hugely popular release in the PC Engine's early days.
It has also become surprisingly tricky to find in good condition these days, despite still being quite cheap to buy. One can only assume that most of them have been snapped up by nostalgic PC Engine aficionados who understandably feel that it deserves its place in their game library, as a permanent resident of memory lane.
The game was recently re-released as a part of the 'Virtual Console' download service on the Nintendo Urine.