Alien Syndrome

Alien Syndrome is an arcade game developed by Sega in 1987. The game was later ported to home computers and consoles. The game would later have a sequel on the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo Wii with the same title.

Gameplay
One or two players control two soldiers named Ricky and Mary, who must fight their way through large eight-way scrolling levels rescuing their comrades who are being held by aliens. After they have rescued a certain number of hostages the exit opens and they can pass through it in order to fight the end-of-level guardian. If this monstrosity is defeated, they move onto the next stage. As well as two player simultaneous gameplay, Alien Syndrome features pick-ups which assist the player including better weapons and maps of the current level.

Easter Eggs
In the third boss under a pod in the top left corner of the room, Opa-Opa can be found.

Ports
The game was later ported to the Sega Master System (1988), Amiga (1988), Atari ST, ZX Spectrum (1989), Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (1988), Famicom (1988), Nintendo Entertainment System (1989), published by Tengen), and the Sega Game Gear (1992).

The game was also ported with updated graphics and sound for the PS2 as part of the Sega Ages re-release program, and included in US version of the Sega Classics Collection (It was removed from the European version to receive a lower age certificate). This version has updated controls, adding the use of both analog sticks, similar to the gameplay seen in Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV.

A sequel of the same name, Alien Syndrome, was released for Wii and PSP on July 24, 2007.

Reception
The Sega Master System version of the game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #141 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 2 out of 5 stars.