Alien 3 on Nintendo Entertainment System is a let down for me. The goal of the game is rescue all the captured prisoners that have been impregnated by the facehuggers, before the timer runs out and they are killed by the Xenomorphs bursting out of their guts. It sounds simple, but it really is an unfair game. The enemies are faster than you, and appear too rapidly for you to react in time to avoid or defeat them. The controls are stiff and Ripley has fast movement. Which is amazing that you can be both sluggish and slippery at the same time. Jumping has a slight delay, causing a lot of missed platforms. You need to be pixel perfect to go down a ladder. It’s so frustrating. The levels are large and full of dead ends. You lose precious time exploring them to complete each stage. Honestly, the only way this game is beatable is to memorize every enemy placement to kill them fast and know every location of the captured prisoners. What’s the fun in that!?
There is challenging and there is unfair difficulty. I did not enjoy my time with this game. It’s not the worst game ever, but I know there are better titles out there to play. Unless you want to tear your hair out and destroy furniture for this game’s grueling difficulty and broken controls, I say skip it.