Gretchen Leigh

Come check out the 80s MMO Habitat, developed by Lucasfilm Games, this Friday through the NeoHabitat client. See the article for more details

366k tapes!!! not hyperbole to say that we almost lost a massive cultural/historical archive here.

go listen to some mixtapes

This week's game is Alien Brigade, a loving homage to Taito's Operation Wolf and one of the exclusive highlights of the Atari 7800 library. It may be a straightforward game, but dealing with body-snatching aliens is easier said than done!

The Atari 7800 didn't have a lot of games, but it did get a handful of neat exclusives towards the end of its life, and Alien Brigade is among the best. At least that's what I hear: this is actually my first time playing an Atari 7800 game! I have played my fair share of light gun games, though, so I feel safe saying that this one is quite solid. It stays faithful to its inspiration, asking you to juggle shooting enemies with saving hostages, but it makes a fair few tweaks to give it a bit of a horror flair.

It's obvious that you're fighting aliens, but many of the aliens are using human bodies to stay disguised. Because of that, you have to not only be fast with your shots, but you have to observe enemies beforehand to figure out who's innocent and who's a threat. A simple but effective weapon system has you collecting limited ammo and deciding when to pull out the big guns. The ammo for your default gun is incredibly generous, but the game smartly makes ammo much rarer towards the end, lending the endgame a scary but also climactic finish. The whole game feels like it's touching up on ideas that would become standard for the survival horror genre before that was a thing, which makes it extra interesting to revisit now. Between that, the great presentation, and the gameplay that feels right even without the light gun, Alien Brigade is a solid option for a light gun fix that isn't one of the usual recommendations.

forgot to mention this here: Game Center Betty, the Nagao rhythm game arcade famous for being a semi-official cat hangout, and which was featured prominently in the recent manga & anime Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia (Insomniacs After School), apparently took substantial damage from last night's earthquake: the manager says they and their cats are fine, but their cabinets weren't as lucky. The full extent of the damage isn't yet known, but they did share a photo of the exterior damage, as seen above.

They have an established crowdfunding portal via Ci-en that they've been using to keep their cats fed and generally subsidise operations, so if you feel inclined to help out, you may want to check it out: subs start from ¥500/month. (Here's an English rundown of how to use Ci-en, should you require it.)