When it comes to 2D shooters it really doesn't get much better then Alien Hominid in the graphics department. The art style is deeply unique giving the game a Saturday morning cartoon appeal, that is of course until your little alien bugger slits an FBI agent's stomach and fires a bolt of acid completely evaporating another. The effects on all of the guns (save for the pretty generic looking shots from the FBI drones) look gorgeous and even better when shredding through an enemy. The only real issue I have with the game in terms of its looks is the fact that they only took the time to add in one style of the basic enemy which come at you for more then half of the game. This tends to get rather mundane as you repeatedly kill the same looking enemy over and over.

The game, despite its basic controls (you'll only be using three buttons for most of the game: Shoot, jump, and lob grenade), still manages to be a pretty addictive game. It's the definition of "pick up and play" as there's practically zero learning curve. It does sport some of the most creative looking levels and bosses I've seen in some time. You'll be fighting a gigantic butterscotch, robots, gigantic mechanical hornets and a slew of other creepy creatures. Seems like the developers spent more time designing the bosses then they did the generic enemies you encounter much more frequently.

If you've been paying attention you'll notice the words "2D shooter" "basic controls" and "one style of enemy" have been used, so it goes without saying this game doesn't really have much depth. You're an alien trapped on Earth now you need to kill things for no particular reason. Although, as with most games of its kin, you're not playing Alien Hominid for the gripping story -- you're playing it to blow the living hell out of things. Thankfully, you're able to do this at a pretty frequent rate.

There's not much to say about the sound or music as it's fairly non-existent. The background music is just your generic metal soundtrack and sound then effects run the spectrum of "Boom" to "Kablam".

As in most 2D side scrollerss, the level design is bland at best. This brings me to my overall point about this game. Why was it brought to the big consoles? This game's length and ability to suck you in for short periods of time scream "handheld release." It lacks any real strength to contend with the bigger titles and, frankly, it's only fun for so long. Again it's a 2D shooter and save for its history, there's nothing that sets it ahead of the pack in length, difficulty or playability.

Alien Hominid is a pretty short game but tries to make up for it by its blazing difficulty level. Trust me -- your thumbs will be raw by the time you're done. However, I just can't get behind a game that's 30 dollars, short, has basic controls, limited sound. This game would be much better suited if it were the next game for the PSP, DS or even the Gameoy Advanced. Playing Alien Hominid really boils down to how long you can take playing a handheld game in console game's body.