I seem to remember this getting really good reviews upon original release, but I’m struggling to see how. I did look up some of them, and came across this incredible bit of art editor drunkenness from Amiga User International, which attempts to show the screen that comes up when you access a computer terminal, but fails, rather than any of the actual game itself. Incredible work. And also look out for some great whitespace issues:

Anyway, that review also tells you about the game so I don’t need to, but I will tell you why it is wrong. Firstly, calling it “based on Gauntlet” is really doing Gauntlet a disservice. Sure, you have a top-down maze and keys to open doors, but that’s it. Gauntlet has variety. Loads of baddies and baddie generators. Bonus levels, great speech, four players, potions… so much more than Alien Breed which has boring levels, mazes that do nothing but frustrate, way more doors than keys meaning it’s very, very easy to get stuck if you open the wrong door (and so have to restart the level), and several levels with countdown timers where you have to solve the maze super-quick. One of them gives you just two seconds to get out, with the distance to cover also taking two seconds. Not fun.

There are also only really three different baddies, ammo is in very short supply, you have to collect money for better weapons which aren’t really worth it, and it’s possible to accidently trigger fire doors so you can’t progress as once closed, they’re closed for good.

The aliens (which have been lifted directly from Aliens) aren’t really even a threat – it’s everything else that is. Bad game. To your room.

Bloody hell that was hard. Save states at the start of each level and still the last couple of levels were near impossible.

Although I loved this back on my Amiga, what I hadn’t realised back then was how poor the collision detection was, which, coupled with the jerky movement, caused so many deaths as I slammed accidentally into walls as I tried to scrape by. Perhaps this was because the first two levels are pretty easy but I never got any further than that until now.

A big advantage (aside from the save states) of the Evercade version are the additional buttons which replace having to either waggle the joystick or slap the spacebar (I used to do it with my foot) in order to activate the Gradius-like power-up system. The number of times I’d die while trying to GUNS, POWER UP previously, now eased with just a simple button press instead.

Despite it not living up to my memory, and feeling much less polished than it appeared to be at the time, it was still fun. But so, so hard.