Alien Soldier [Model G-4130]

Alien Soldier was released on February 24, 1995 in Japan. Retail price: 6800 Yen.

After developing Gunstar Heroes, Treasure was divided into four teams working on separate projects: Dynamite Headdy, Light Crusader, Yuu Yuu Hakusho Makyou Touitsusen, and Alien Soldier. Development of Alien Soldier lasted two years and was led by Hideyuki Suganami, who from the start wanted to make the entire game himself. Despite 32-bit fifth generation hardware already on the market, he chose to program the game for the 16-bit Mega Drive, claiming that he may have been too captivated by the idea of making an action shooting game which the system was known for. Treasure explicitly targeted the game for hardcore Mega Drive players and designed its difficulty and end-game scoring methods with this in mind. Suganami described the game as for Mega Drivers custom and proudly placed the phrase on the game's title screen alongside a Mega Drive advertising slogan: Visualshock! Speedshock! Soundshock!.

Suganami was deeply invested in Alien Soldier and devoted a lot of personal time to developing it. He began developing the game himself as the sole designer and programmer. At the time, Mega Drive games typically required two designers and two programmers, but Suganami wanted to challenge himself and see if it was possible to create the game himself. He originally had ambitious plans for a large backstory, but in order to make their deadline of 3 January 1995, the majority of it was cut from the game. As the deadline approached, he came to realize he would not be able to complete Alien Soldier himself, and so additional staff were added to provide him support. He worked overtime during the New Years holidays in order to complete the game while the market for the Mega Drive was quickly shrinking. Only about half of the team's original ideas were completed in time for release.

They originally planned to create 100 bosses, but this was cut much shorter due to the time constraints. One of the bosses that was included, Seven Force, was originally featured in Gunstar Heroes.

Export releases:
[EU] "Alien Soldier [Model 1186-50]"