Heart of the Alien: Out of this World Parts I and II
From Sega Retro
Heart of the Alien: Out of this World Parts I and II | |||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega-CD | |||||||||||||||
Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment | |||||||||||||||
Developer: Interplay, Delphine Software International | |||||||||||||||
Distributor: Tec Toy (BR) | |||||||||||||||
Genre: Compilation | |||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | |||||||||||||||
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Heart of the Alien: Out of this World Parts I and II is a compilation for the Sega Mega-CD, containing Another World (called Out of this World in North America) and a sequel, Heart of the Alien.
As the name may suggest, this compilation was only released in the Americas, however a European release was planned, originally scheduled for June 1994[2][3] before appearing at ECTS Autumn 1994. It was subsequently scheduled for Australia in April 1995[4].
Heart of the Alien was produced with the Mega-CD in mind, though unlike the original game, development was not spearheaded by Eric Chahi.
Contents
Story
After the events of Another World. Lester's alien companion, called "Buddy," lands the flying creature in the ruins of his village, lays Lester down on a cot to rest, and walks through the village, thinking of his past. A flashback follows showing that Buddy's people were captured by soldiers led by one of the alien humanoids with red eyes. After recovering his power whip, Buddy returns to the prison that he and Lester escaped from in the first game, resolved to hunt down the red-eyed warden as revenge for his people.
Gameplay
Out of this World
- Main article: Another World#Gameplay.
Heart of the Alien
Heart of the Alien is a cinematic platforming game like its predecessor, except the player now controls Lester's alien companion "Buddy." The game consists of a series of non-scrolling scenes. Buddy walks or turns around with and
or runs with HOLD
or
. He pulls himself up ledges with
to reach higher platforms. He hops forward with
or leaps a longer distance with
while running. He cannot crouch. Some areas contain teleporters that warp Buddy with
or
.
He acquires a whip early in the game. He can swing the whip as a weapon with or swing it upwards to swing from stalactites or similar objects with
+
. The whip can also be used to hit switches or knock objects down. Similar to Lester's laser gun in the first game, Buddy can use the whip to block enemy fire by holding
while stationary, which causes a force field and a small energy ball to appear. The force field persists for a duration if the player stops holding the button. The energy ball grows larger if the player continues to hold
; releasing the button at this point fires a powerful charged shot, which can penetrate through enemy force fields and other barriers. Enemy aliens have the same capabilities. Force fields stop fire but can be walked through.
Buddy dies if he takes any damage from an enemy or the environment, but the game can be continued an unlimited number of times from the last checkpoint. The game uses a password system for continuing from each checkpoint at a later time; the current password is shown at the continue screen after dying.
Levels
The game is played as one long, uninterrupted level, with checkpoints at certain points.
Level 1 | |
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Password: BDXF | |
Level 2 | |
Password: XRCL | |
Level 3 | |
Password: KGDD | |
Level 4 | |
Password: DGBJ | |
Level 5 | |
Password: KTLB | |
Level 6 | |
Password: RLRB | |
Level 7 | |
Password: RJLG | |
Level 8 | |
Password: LKHC | |
Level 9 | |
Password: CXLD | |
Level 10 | |
Password: TBBL | |
Level 11 | |
Password: HLCJ | |
Level 12 | |
Password: FFTR | |
Level 13 | |
Password: CDJR | |
History
Development
The game was developed without the involvement of Another World creator Eric Chahi. Chahi did not want to create a sequel and does not consider the events of Heart of the Alien canon, preferring to leave the fates of the characters ambiguous. He originally envisioned the game as retelling the story of Another World from the perspective of Buddy rather than Lester.
“ | Interplay insisted in making the sequel in order to make the most of the CD-ROM medium's capabilities. After discussion, I agreed. Rather than making a chronological development related to the first story, I decided that redesigning the game from the alien point of view was excellent, and would make the player discover Another World with other eyes. I could already picture scenes where Lester would be in the background fighting guards, while the player would control the alien in the foreground and then join our first hero, help him, etc... The concept was good but, alas, neither the animations nor the game, entirely developed by Interplay, were up to the job. It was a flop. | „ |
Legacy
Heart of the Alien was exclusive to the Mega-CD, but a fan project called Heart of the Alien Redux has reverse engineered the game and ported it to Windows and Amiga OS.[6]
Production credits
Out of this World
- Design: Eric Chahi
- Original Programmer: Eric Chahi
- Genesis Programmer: Mike Burton
- Executive Producer: Stephen Clarke-Wilson
- Interplay Productions Producer: Alan Pavlish
- Virgin Games, Inc. Producer: Erik Yeo
- Music: Tommy Tallarico, Jean-Francois Freitas
- Sound: Tommy Tallarico, Jean-Francois Freitas, Eric Chahi
- Title Animation: Jason Magness
- Quality Assurance: Manager Michael Gater
- Quality Assurance Team: Noah Tool, Justin Norr, Danny Lewis, Mike Glosecki, Eugene Martin, Tommy Hulett
- Manual By: Robin Kausch
- Thanks to: Jesus Martinez, Daniel Morais, Frederic Savoir, Cecile Chahi, Philippe Delamarre, Philippe Ulrich, Sebastien Berthet, Pierre Gousseau, Bill Heineman
Heart of the Alien
- Executive Producer: Neil Young
- Producer: Tom Gibson
- Assistant Producer: Jeff Buccellato
- Q.A. Group Head: Chris McFarland
- Lead Analyst: Jon Williams
- Product Analysts: Chad Soares, Scott Manning, Paul Shoener, Mitch Feldman, Chris Toft, Jared Brinkley
- Manual Written by: Mark Polcyn
- Manual Designed by: Crystal Wines
- Executive Producer: Brain Fargo
- Producer: Alan Pavlish
- Line Producer: Feargus Urquhart
- Project Leader: Jeremy S. Barnes
- Programmer: Michael Burton
- Assistant Programmer: Doug Nonast
- Art Director: Todd Camasta
- Lead Artist: Corey Comstock
- Additional Artists: Judy Kriger, Arlene Somers
- Sound & Music: Jean-Francois Freitas
- Original Game Design: Eric Chahi
Magazine articles
Promotional material
also published in:
- GamePro (US) #57: "April 1994" (1994-xx-xx)[9]
- Game Players (US) #0705: "Vol. 7 No. 5 May 1994" (1994-0x-xx)[10]
- Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #58: "May 1994" (1994-xx-xx)[11]
Physical scans
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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75 | |
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Based on 14 reviews |
Technical information
ROM dump status
System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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? |
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446,329,632 | CD-ROM (US) | T-70025 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 7 July 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 48
- ↑ Mega, "April 1994" (UK; 1994-03-17), page 81
- ↑ Sega Pro, "June 1994" (UK; 1994-05-24), page 10
- ↑ File:NewReleasesCatalogueApril-May1995AU.pdf, page 17
- ↑ http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/page_versions.htm
- ↑ https://hota.sourceforge.net/
- ↑ File:Heartofthealien mcd us manual.pdf, page 18
- ↑ File:Heartofthealien mcd us manual.pdf, page 19
- ↑ GamePro, "April 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 25
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 5 May 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 23
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "May 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 209
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 135
- ↑ CD Consoles, "Avril 1995" (FR; 1995-xx-xx), page 122
- ↑ Consoles +, "Avril 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 148
- ↑ Electronic Entertainment, "July 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 86
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "January 1995" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 42
- ↑ GamePro, "September 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 66
- ↑ Joypad, "Avril 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 90
- ↑ Mega Fun, "08/94" (DE; 1994-07-20), page 64
- ↑ Player One, "Avril 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 108
- ↑ Sega Pro, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-01), page 68
- ↑ Sega Megazone, "September 1995" (AU; 1995-0x-xx), page 26
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 7
- ↑ Video Games, "8/94" (DE; 1994-07-27), page 87
Heart of the Alien: Out of this World Parts I and II | |
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