Alien Crush

1988 video game

Alien Crush is a pinball video game developed by Compile for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16. It was released in 1988. The game is the first installment in the Crush Pinball series. It was followed by three sequels, Devil's Crush, Jaki Crush, and Alien Crush Returns. Alien Crush was later rereleased on the Virtual Console and on the PlayStation Network. Alien Crush garnered generally favorable reception from critics, some of which reviewed it as an import title; praise was given to the unusual and original graphical design reminiscent of the Alien films, realistic physics, accessibility towards less experience players and playability but some felt divided regarding its audio, while the transition between the two screens and lack of variety in gameplay aside from the bonus rounds were seen as negative points. Retrospective commentary has been mostly positive.

Alien Crush features a science fiction theme reminiscent of the film Alien. Essentially, the player is "fighting" against the aliens with their pinball skills. The playfield of Alien Crush consists of two main screens arranged vertically, with a pair of flippers at the bottom of each. The play stops momentarily as the ball shifts from one screen to the next. There are also several hidden/bonus rooms. These hidden rooms mainly involve destroying all the aliens (or several waves of aliens) for bonus points. Should the player achieve the maximum possible score of 10 less than 1 billion, the game ends with the destruction of the table and a congratulatory message. The player is given the choice of a fast or slow ball speed and two different music tracks.

Alien Crush was the first game in the Crush Pinball series developed by Compile and distributed by Naxat Soft and later Hudson Soft. A common theme amongst all installments in the series that sets them apart from other pinball games is the presence of sci fi, fantasy or occult themes. Devil's Crush was released in 1990 also for the TurboGrafx 16, which featured an occult theme with skulls, skeletons, and demons. Devil's Crush was ported to the Sega Genesis, retitled Dragon's Fury (Devil Crash MD in Japan), by developer Technosoft. A third game was later developed for the Super Famicom called Jaki Crush that contained a Japanese demon/ogre mythology theme, although the game was never released outside Japan. The series was revived in 2008 when Hudson Soft published a sequel/remake to Alien Crush called Alien Crush Returns for WiiWare. While Jaki Crush became largely obscure, Alien Crush and Devil's Crush were well received and have both been re released on the Virtual Console. Demon's Tilt was released in 2019. The game has been called a spiritual successor to the Crush Pinball series, namely Devil's Crush.