Game: Alien vs Predator (1993) - SNES
Movie: Alien (1979)/Predator (1987)
The Movie: There's nothing like putting the two alien races that racked up the biggest body counts of the '80s on a screen in front of a theater full of kids. Each movie had its own reasons for getting an R-rating, and it's tough to say which one has less business being converted into a game.
Highlights from Alien include one of the very memorable Facehugger aliens hatching from a leathery egg and attaching itself to a very unlucky guy named Kane's face. Later, after the Facehugger detaches itself, we get to see the alien that was planted in Kane burst out of his chest during dinner - not exactly the kind of sitdown appropriate for the little ones.
The other movie is very similar to the Predator movie we mentioned earlier, in which the Predator hunts down the commandos. This is because it's the same movie. Something about it makes it impossible for game developers to stay away.
The Game: It wasn't until 2004 that we got a movie starring both of the creatures, but that didn't stop several Aliens vs Predator games from being created years before that, including the 1993 SNES game. In some ways, this kids' game was ahead of its time. In every other way, it shouldn't even exist.
While the movies are about people being hunted down one at a time, the game is a Final Fight clone about alien ass-whuppin'. For reasons that have nothing to do with any of the movies, a Predator intercepts a distress signal from a planet called Vega 4 and decides to check it out in case there are thousands of Aliens to kill or something. He lucks out, and then starts punching out Aliens by the dozens. If only he'd been there in '79 for the Alien movie. He makes it look pretty easy, proving that all the people in the Alien movie - who only had to contend with one measly Alien - were wusses.
