Alien vs. Predator (1994, Jaguar) by Atari

Current Leaderboard (speedrun.com)

GAMES FROM THIS EPISODE OF AVGN:
–Alien vs Predator (Jaguar)
-Tempest 2000 (Jaguar)
-Cybermorph (Jaguar)
-Doom (Jaguar) (another version of Doom is reviewed here for 32x)
-Attack of the Mutant Penguins (Jaguar)
-Kasumi Ninja (Jaguar)
-Super Mario Bros (NES)
-Hover Strike (Jaguar CD)
-Myst (Jaguar CD)
-Blue Lightning (Jaguar CD)
-Vid Grid (Jaguar CD)

Alien vs Predator is such a sad, missed opportunity.  This game is so clever in its’ concepts and design, with nice graphics and a haunting atmosphere you cannot find in many games from its’ day.  You can play as the alien, the predator, or a marine, each having their own skills, movesets, and whatnot (the speedrun uses the alien as they’re the fastest and most agile).  The level layouts are decent, if not monotonous and pointless; this game is not a key hunt like Doom, or objective-based like Goldeneye; you just get from A to B without dying.

The awful controls are not aided in any way by the awful Jaguar controller; this is quite possibly the worst-playing FPS I’ve ever played.  STRAFE IS #7 and #9?  REALLY?  The low frame rate was acceptable in the 90s but aged poorly; the enemy design is a pixelated, repetitive drawl of the same 2-3 enemy types for the entire game.  Don’t get lost in the air vents!  You’ll wander around for a literal waste of time with zero enemies and obstacles.  You just get lost.  That’s this game in a nutshell: move like crap, get lost, die.

The speedrun sucks just as hard.  The no-cheat category?  That’s this run in a nutshell: move like crap, get lost, die.  Once you LEARN the way to go, good luck not getting trolled by RNG and dying.  I quickly audibled to cheat% which uses a simple cheat code to allow you to skip to the final level.  It’s just as stupid, arguably moreso, but it’s just keeping you from banging your head against a wall until the RNG decides you can run to the end of the level.

This is stupid to speedrun.  This game was good for its’ day; it’s awful today.  Play Doom instead.