Aliens Walkthrough, Part 2

[This is the second part of a quick walkthrough for Square’s unreleased Aliens game for the Famicom Disk System. Part 1 is here.]

Welcome to level 2! Before we continue, here’s another bit of trivia discovered recently at Lost Levels — the background music in Aliens was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who would later create music for first dozen or so games in Square’s Final Fantasy series.

(NES-wise, he also wrote the catchy main theme from 3-D WorldRunner and the excellent “track 3” from Rad Racer.)

Shortly after starting level 2, this is what you’ll see. But wait! It gets better.

yyyyyyyep

First of all, note that Ripley enters the room on top of a wall-mounted alien for some automatic and unavoidable damage. The bigger problem, though, is oh my god so many doors.

Might as well get started.

Remember to keep holding up on the d-pad when you exit! This is instant death, otherwise.

The remaining doors offer a random combination of progress, backtracking, and death. The one you want is this one.

You’ll end up here.

And you’ll want to take this door…

…which leads to here. After that, all you need to do is jump over to the door on the left.

And that pleasant little slice of hell is now over with. At least, that is, until you lose a life, in which case you’ll have to do it all over again. Don’t take that next door, by the way — it leads right back into the maze.

Halfway through the level, you’ll find a 1-up. This is where I discovered that, for whatever reason, there are multiple 1-up icons. Here’s the space fish, previously seen in level 1.

Then there’s the space puppy.

And finally, the space snail. Space is such a fun place.

Soon you’ll encounter this door. Don’t drop down to the right! You can’t climb back up, and the door down there takes you back to the beginning of the level.

And because you haven’t seen enough doors yet, here’s three more. Door 1 leads…

…back to the maze, assuming you survive the drop. Door 2 leads…

…a little bit further into the maze. And Door 3…

…uh, also takes you back into the maze. Yes, all three doors are entirely pointless. Game design!

A few screens later, you’ll come to this door. Aren’t you curious as to what’s inside?

Hey, it’s your favorite! Instant death!

By this point, you may be wary of doors.

And for good reason! This one also takes you back to the maze.

You’re actually supposed to go in this door. I promise.

So, by this point, you’ve died repeatedly and have backtracked through the door maze about four, maybe five times.

You may have even lost all of your lives, in which case you’ve started over from the very beginning of the game. There are no continues or save points.

And as a reward, you get to wade neck-deep through alien bodily waste.

Clearly, what you’re in the mood for right now is one of the hardest jumps in the game. You’ll need to be at the very edge of that platform when you jump, or else Ripley will bump her head on the ceiling and you’ll fall to your death. Make it to the door, though, and you’ll face the boss.

Which…is the exact same boss as the one in the first level.

Okay, so there’s one big difference. While level 1’s boss was content to hang back and let you shoot it to death, this one wastes no time in getting all up in your business.

It’s no big deal, though. Just walk through the alien, taking a few hits in the process, and blast it from the right side of the screen.

Believe it or not, you’re almost done with the game. To be concluded…!

6 Responses to “Aliens Walkthrough, Part 2”

  1. Kris Says:

    So far this seems like the kind of thing that would have made me throw my Nintendo out the window and give up on video games entirely as a child.

  2. jp Says:

    This certainly gives further credence to the claim that “Final Fantasy” was called such because it was the last desperate attempt to remain in business by a company wallowing in commercial failure.

  3. skyrunner14 Says:

    I’m up to the point this article ends right now. Thank goodness for save states, because there’s no other way I could have ever gotten that far playing on an actual system. I mean, wow. There are poorly programmed flash games better than this! Square sure started out rough…

  4. John William Harris Says:

    It’s worth noting that this game may well have still been in development at the time it was abandoned, so it might not be honest to judge Square completely on this.

    Also, it’s a myth that Square was unsuccessful before Final Fantasy. Both World Runner and Rad Racer sold better than the original Final Fantasy! They did have trouble with their “D.O.G.” label it seems, which was heavily tied to the fate of the Famicom Disk System.

  5. Nuevo Prototipo ve la Luz: Aliens de Square (Famicom Disk) | Blog de kaiserland77.com Says:

    […] Enlaces de interés: Descargar prototipo: Link 1 – Link 2 Review/Fuente Original: Parte 1 + Parte 2 […]

  6. Dream and Friends» Blog Archive » Aliens Walkthrough, The Shocking Finale Says:

    […] « Aliens Walkthrough, Part 2 […]

Leave a Reply