Antstream, who has made a name for themselves re-releasing bundles of retro games, has partnered with Team17 to release the incredibly curated Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection. This compilation has been created with immense love and sets a standard on how retrospectives should be portrayed; it is very respectful of the source material.
To summarize quickly, the Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection doubles down as a passionate preservation effort with meaningful contemporary updates. It is easy to see the amount of care that went into this package. Unfortunately, this bundle is also a harsh reminder of 90s gameplay.
This compilation contains six Alien Breed titles although there are variants of some:
Alien Breed (1991) – the original top‑down shooter that launched the series.
Alien Breed: Special Edition (1992) – enhanced version of the first game.
Alien Breed II: The Horror Continues (1993) – includes both OCS (Original Chip Set) and AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) Amiga versions.
Alien Breed: Tower Assault (1994) – includes Amiga and Amiga CD32 versions.
Alien Breed 3D (1995) – Amiga CD32 version. A FPS.
Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds (1996) – the series’ second first‑person entry.
In other words, there are a lot of games here and most have received modern, welcomed enhancements. For example, the top-down games have been outfitted with intuitive twin-stick controls, gameplay and visual options, and even save enhancements. The first-person shooters can be stretched with the press of a button to better align with modern displays, as another example. The most impressive aspect comes from the museum interface. Built using the classic game engine, the player can walk around the game world to interact with parts of the environment to learn more about its history. It is so gosh dang charming and wish more compilations took it to the next level like this.
While there is a lot of content here, all wrapped in a brilliantly respected package, the bad news is that these games have not aged well. The only thing more rage inducing than the brutal difficulty is the ability to softlock yourself. The early top-down games are essentially maze, corridor shooters in which keys are needed to progress. However, it is very easy to use keys on doors that lead to nowhere, preventing progress. The first FPS, Alien Breed 3D, is also in desperate need of an HD remastering as it looks terrible on high-def modern displays, no fault to Antstream. Oddly, for a package that took so much pride in creating an impressive digital museum, it is a shame there is no option to invert the y axis in The Killing Grounds and the UI here on this Xbox version contains a PC interface as it literally displays a mouse controller map.
Personally, I never had the opportunity to play the Alien Breed games when they were first released. While I am thankful for this package, as I got to experience this series in one easy to digest bundle, I can safely say these games are not for me. Long time fans will appreciate it the most, but newcomers will most likely struggle with the unfair gameplay… but man! The extra content cannot be understated. Disc scans. Prototypes. Multiple versions. Demo trailers. There is so much appreciated, extra stuff here. Just a shame the games themselves are very much products of their time.
SCORE: 8/10
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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