88. Alien Vs Predator

(Arcade, Capcom, 1994)
Its ALIEN ok? not ALIENS.
Alien vs Predator is a franchise that has been visited many times by many media forms, its been a comic book, a series of horrible films and also a series of games ranging from truly dreadful to pretty darn good.

In question today is Capcoms side scrolling fighter/shooter from 1994, Up to three players pick from a choice of four characters: Two types of Predator, an Arnie-esque military man and a sexy as hell android girl (If she's an android does that make it Alien vs Predator vs Terminator?)

The players dash from left to right taking out scores of Xenomorphs, face huggers, dodgy secret military squads and various hybrids and new species of Alien. The enemies literally flood the screen making for the most crowded scrolling beat-em-up in a long time, fortunately, our heroes are blessed with various fighting maneuvers and also some form of firearm, from Linn's pistol to the Predator shoulder cannon.
There is real individuality in the characters, they all have their own special moves and attacks, varying degrees of firepower and ammo and the usual "Speed vs Power" balance.
AVP is a truly chaotic game, the general weakness of the enemies being balanced out by raw numbers as they pour into the screen from all directions, this makes for a frantic three player war, especially once weapon pickups such as rocket launchers and pulse rifles come into play.

Amazingly (or not) a quick look on Youtube reveals that people have discovered legitimate combos in the game, chaining together their strikes, gunshots and special attacks to create unstoppable sequences that rivals Capcoms one-on-one fighters.
I'm a huge scrolling fighter fan, as such Ive learnt sequences and tactics in various games, but never to the extent of this, it shows that theres even a logic to what some people might see as a classic button masher.

Capcoms AvP is one of the better games to take on the franchise and can be seen as a deep fighting mechanic or just a whole lot of apocalyptic fun.
When should you play this?"Anytime"