Amiga classic Alien Breed to get a 35th Anniversary Collection with six games

Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection – here’s a publisher credit we never thought to see again (Commodore) Alien Breed is celebrating its 35th anniversary with a new compilation and a major archive of behind the scenes content, but the most surprising thing is whose publishing it. Despite its importance to the European gaming scene in the late 80s and early 90s, the Commodore Amiga and its games do not often get mentioned nowadays, in large part because the old 16-bit home computer was not popular in the US and Japan. There was some excitement generated around its 40th anniversary last year but the only thing since then has been a set of James Pond remasters so bad the original creator has already disowned them and a disappointing remake of Defender Of The Crown. On a more positive note, a new compilation of Alien Breed games have been announced and what’s interesting is it’s being published by the newly revived Commodore, even though original publisher Team17 is still going. Which implies that Commodore will be looking to make more of these compilations, for other franchises, in the future. Team17 has tried multiple times in the past to revive the Alien Breed franchise, but the problem is it’s just too much a product of its time. The original was released in 1991 and was a top-down shooter, influenced by arcade classic Gauntlet. The far more obvious influence though was Aliens, with the game being so similar in terms of the enemies, weapons, and atmosphere that Team17 were lucky 20th Century Fox’s lawyers didn’t have a word. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. We can’t say we ever liked the series very much, as it was punishingly difficult and the controls very frustrating, but that at least has been addressed in this compilation, which adds the option for dual stick controls. The compilation includes Alien Breed, Alien Breed Special Edition ’92, Alien Breed 2: The Horror Continues, Alien Breed: Tower Assault, Alien Breed 3D, and Alien Breed 3D 2: The Killing Grounds. Tower Assault was the final entry to still be a top-down shooter and was only released on the Amiga 1200/4000, the CD32, and MS-DOS. Alien Breed 3D was the same, except it dropped PC support because of the success of id Software’s Doom. The artwork looks interesting (Commodore) Alien Breed 3D and its sequel were very much Doom but on an Amiga, which resulted in some very low-tech visuals – even if we’re sure it was a nightmare to get them looking even that good. That was it from the franchise until Team17 tried to revive it with a series of new games starting in 2009 on the Xbox 360, but none of those are included here. What you do get though is an interactive ‘Vault’ full of concept art, developer interviews, and videos – which sounds great and exactly the sort of thing that’s usually missing from these sorts of retro compilations. As well as dual stick controls, there’s also mouse and keyboard support for the 3D games, an improved frame rate, multiple save states for each game, and a choice between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Local co-op is still an option, plus you’ve got new Rush and Horde modes, with the former offering an online co-op option. If you’re a fan of the series, it seems pretty much the perfect compilation, and will be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC from September 24. Alien Breed 3D was no rival to Doom (Commodore) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Saber Interactive hands-on with Hellraiser: Revival, Turok: Origins and Stuntman Arrow MORE: Mario Kart just got an eight-player split-screen mode but not Mario Kart World Arrow MORE: GTA 6 extended look causes PS5 Pro to sell out – only two stores have it in UK GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.