Alien vs. Predator is a side-scrolling Beat-'em-up game made by Capcom for the Arcade in 1994. The default cabinet for the game allowed for up to three players to play simultaneously, although some smaller cabinets only allowing two-player play were used.
San Drad, California has been overrun by Xenomorphs. Two soldiers were caught in the town during the initial alien outbreak and were abandoned by the rest of their team as well as their superiors, and are cornered by a swarm of xenomorph drones. Before they can be killed, two Predators appear and destroy the xenomorphs, saving the human soldiers. Eventually, it is discovered that the Alien presence on Earth (and the subsequent swarm that overran San Drad) was the result of an experiment headed by an USCM colonel in conjuntion with the Weyland-Yutani corporation. In the end, the Alien Hive on Earth is destroyed in a scene similar to that in the ending of the fourth Alien movie, Alien: Resurrection - A military ship is set on a course that causes it to crash into San Drad, destroying the Alien threat along with a good portion of the western US, if the explosion in the ending credits is to scale.
Characters
The game featured four characters: Two Cyborgs, and a pair of Predators. Each character had varying levels of speed, strength, jumping ability and direction, and different attacks.
File:AVPaPredHunter.JPGPredator Hunter -- A young Yautja hunter, who fights for the glory of the hunt. Fights with a Naginata.
File:AVPaPredWarrior.JPGPredator Warrior -- An older Yautja warrior, seeking other hunters that have gone missing on Earth. Fights with a Combi-stick, which is an extendable and retractable spear.
File:AVPaLinn.JPGLieutenant Linn Kurosawa -- While her cybernetics may not be readily apparent, the fact the she can face Xenomorphs in hand-to-hand combat and win shows their presence. Fights with a large-caliber pistol and a Katana, as well as several martial-arts moves more at home in a game like Street Fighter. Linn is fast and agile, but low on stamina, and must stop moving to reload her gun. She also has the largest moveset in the game.
File:AVPaDutch.JPGMajor Dutch Schaefer -- Based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in the original Predator. One arm has been replaced with a cybernetic arm mounting a smartgun. Powerful but slow, Schaefer dashes forward instead of jumping. He can make use of almost any weapon in the game.
Controls
Alien vs. Predator featured a control setup with an 8-way joystick and three buttons: Attack, Jump, and Shoot. Aside from their hand-to-hand moves, each character also carries a gun. Linn uses a rapid-fire pistol, Schaefer had his built-in smartgun, while the Predators both used their signature shoulder-mounted plasma casters.
In order to provide a large array of enemies for the players to fight, the game takes some deviations from the established Xenomorph biology. The differences can be explained in their nature as experimental subjects.
Facehuggers, Chestbursters, and Infectoids
One interesting note about the aliens in the game is the effect of their Facehuggers. Their gestation period is fairly long, but unlike other Xenomorph broods, the victim is often reduced to a zombie-like state (known as Infectoids), and will move around and attack intruders.
Warrior
The Alien Warriors are typically based off of the designs in Aliens, with a humanoid build and ridges along its cranium, and typically a black exoskeleton. This brood is also known to spit acid.
Stalker
These xenomorphs are similar to the creature in Alien³ and are slightly more dangerous than the average Warrior. Of note is that this species does not spit acid while the Warriors do - This is reversed from movie canon, where the Warriors were never observed doing this, while the xenomorph in Alien³ was.
Royal Guard
Also known as Praetorians, a name popularized in the later Alien vs. Predator PC games. They are almost as large and powerful as the Queen, and are typically encountered more the closer the player gets to the Queen. Royal Guard are capable of spitting acid.
Chrysalis
A very large Xenomorph with a green exoskeleton and a tan carapace on its head, back, and forearms. It sometimes moves/attacks by rolling itself along the ground in a ball. It gets its name from the chrysalis that it is seen gestating in when it first appears.
This alien is very similar to one that appears in an Aliens arcade game made by Konami. Both Xenomorphs were the first bosses of their respective games.
Razor Claws
Another large breed with a purple coloration and large, sharp claws on its fingers. It is known for its great speed, making it hard to defeat or even keep up with. It is fond of using that speed to make dashing attacks in which it uses its namesakes to cause massive damage.
The Queen
Appearing at the fourth level and the last level of the game, the Queen is quite similar to her appearance as well as behavior in the movie Aliens. She possesses long, spindly limbs and a thin body with an extremely large and crested head. The inner mouth displayed by her species is especially long in the game. Much like her role in the movie, she is very large and powerful and quite hard to defeat.
Other Broods
There are several broods in the game that little is known about. These include:
Defenders -- A bluish brood with an apparently hardened carapace that can defend itself against hand-to-hand attacks
Smashers -- A Green-brown brood that attacks enemies with a charging ram attack.
Arachnoids -- A strong Purple brood that prefers leaping attacks.
They are assumed to be special variants of the Warrior and Stalker aliens created through experimentation, much like the Chrysalis and Razor Claws minibosses.
The player also faces several types of soldiers and in one case, a Predator.
Soldiers
Privates, Sergeants, and Corporals. Unremarkable, aside from their wide variety of attacking methods. They display most of the weapons popularized by the movies.
Power Loader
In one case, the player has to battle a human soldier in a Power Loader, a robotic suit designed to aid humans in moving heavy loads that was first used in the film Aliens. It has been referred to as a Forklift On Legs and that is basically its purpose. However, the one in this game seems to have been modified for battle purposes.
Mad Predator
A Predator (Or two Predators, if the game is played by two or three players) infected by the altered Facehuggers that produced the Infectoids. Rather than making this Predator zombie-like, the infection seems to have driven him insane. He represents a critical turning point in the plot and is signifigantly stronger than the Predators that the player can use.
Weapons
Like similar games, weapons can be found in containers, or taken from fallen enemies. Linn and the Predators will throw most weapons, but Schaefer can use them all.
The various guns and the flamethrower will run out of ammunition after a few short bursts of fire, but picking up another weapon of the same kind provides more ammo.
Metal Pole - A simple hunk of metal broken off in fighting. Usually found by destroying street signs or lamp posts in outdoors areas.
Spear, Naginata, Katana - If Linn or the Predators are knocked off their feet, they'll lose their weapon, which can be picked up and used by any other character.
Hand grenades - A few seconds after one is thrown, it violently explodes. It's good for taking out groups of enemies.
Flamethrower - Short-ranged, but good against Xenomorphs. It runs out of ammo quickly if not used sparingly.
Grenade launcher - Hits all enemies in a line from the point of impact.
M41A "Pulse Rifle" - Standard weapon with a high firing rate and decent damage.
M56 Smart Gun - More powerful version of the pulse rifle. The auto-targetting feature that made the weapon famous in the movies and other games is strangely not present.
Smart Disc - A Predator throwing disc that slices through most material and then returns to the user.
