5/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of Aliens Extermination.

System: Arcade Started: February 12, 2024 Ended: February 12, 2024 I remember long ago, I went to a local movie theater and came across the Aliens: Extermination cabinet in the arcade booth. I did not get the chance to play it because I got a movie to watch, or I would have used the token machine to exchange money for tokens in order to play the arcade games. Fast forward to today. The arcade I have been to actually has one and it was right next to The Alien 3: The Gun cabinet that I just finished. This one was miles better than what I played and Aliens: Armageddon, which I played a couple years ago. This is an underrated gem and it was the best game I played that day. Released in 2006, Aliens Extermination was made by Play Mechanix, a company that would later join with Raw Thrills to make future arcade games like Aliens: Armageddon. Even partnered with 343 Industries to develop the Halo: Fireteam Raven arcade game. The cabinet does not look much with a smaller screen size, but if you look closely, it's actually underappreciated. The first thing you began to make an impression on was the light-gun Pulse Rifle. It looks better than Alien 3: The Gun version, there is a trigger button and two extra buttons in the Pulse Rifle as power-ups, one for using Grenades and Rockets and the other button for using a Flamethrower attachment. There is literally a Pulse Rifle Ammo Counter on the light-gun, which stood out to me. Even when you fire the light gun, the counter decreases depending on how much ammo you have left. And lastly, the game is so loud when you start the game, it echoes the entire arcade room, which makes it even more awesome. The story for this game is your typical hunt: exterminating every Xenomorph, Facehugger, and Cyborg you see. You are backed by your fellow Space Marines and it's just chaotic throughout as your Marines are screaming out of fear, charging ahead of you, and giving out orders. Eventually, they start to panic that they might get into your crossfire. Even when you ran through a room you might accidentally shoot a person, which cost you a chuck of your health bar. Once you start the game, you get a selection of four levels to pick from, and it ends with fighting the Alien Queen as the fifth mission once you complete all four. Nothing too spectacular, but the boss fights are good enough. This game has everything I wanted. The full-on extermination of Xenomorphs keeps the action flow of the game well-suited. The rest of the game was an in-your-face, action-packed adventure. Almost everything you shoot becomes destructible, which is a nice touch by design, and when you run out of Pulse Rifle ammo, you will automatically switch to a pistol with infinite ammo in order to keep the action pace of the game going. Folks from the Internet who reviewed this game claimed that it was “B-Tier” or pretty “cheesy” action. But I beg to differ: Aliens was an 80’s action movie and it's meant to be cheesy. The critics were on-point that the Alien Motion Tracker that appears below the screen keeps beeping constantly, but that is supposed to be that way to blend in the chaos and mayhem in this game as Aliens and Space Marines are running around in both panic and hostility. I would say that’s a nitpick, and I can get by with it. Now the floating Power-Ups items are overdone, so they keep flashing and appearing at every corner in this game for you to fire at and pick up to avoid empty ammo. It's not honestly a big deal since it feels like a video game and I did run out of Pulse Rifle ammo and used the Pistol a couple times, so I am ok with it. This is my favorite Alien Light-Gun arcade, and it needs to be mentioned in a list of good Alien movie franchise games. It’s got the awesome arcade cabinet with a better Pulse Rifle design, the gameplay was graphically smooth, the movie licensed soundtrack and sound effects were perfect enough. Of course there’s emulation, but it will never match the actual arcade cabinet version, so if you see this game anywhere from Game Conventions or any local arcade areas, play this game.