Alpha Mission

Alpha Mission, known as ASO: Armored Scrum Object^[a] in Japan, is a 1985 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by SNK for Japanese arcades; it was released by Tradewest in North America. It was later ported to the Famicom in 1986 and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.^[1]

Alpha Mission
Japanese arcade flyer
Developer	SNK
Publishers	JP: SNK NA: Tradewest
Designer	Koji Obata
Artist	Rampty
Platforms	Arcade, NES
Release	Arcade JP: November 1985[1] NA: May 1986[1] NES JP: September 3, 1986 NA: October 1987 EU: 1987
Genre	Scrolling shooter
Mode	Single-player

The arcade game was a commercial success in Japan, where it was the seventh highest-grossing table arcade game of 1986. A sequel, Alpha Mission II, was released for the Neo Geo arcade system in 1991.

Gameplay

Alpha Mission is a one-player scrolling shooter game in its segregation of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Missiles are used to destroy ground enemies, while laser-like weapons are used for aerial opponents. Throughout each of the levels, the player must fight off waves of enemies that threaten several space stations and a boss must be defeated at the end of each. Like most early games in this genre, when the player dies, all weapons are lost and the player is moved to a point slightly before the point of death. The player's craft can also be upgraded to have more powerful weapons by picking up various power-ups throughout the level.

Release

Alpha Mission was released on the PlayStation Portable as part of PSP Minis via PlayStation Store in 2011.^[2][3][4] Alpha Mission was also released on the Nintendo Switch in the Nintendo eShop on October 25, 2018 and on the PlayStation 4 via PlayStation Store on July 18, 2019 by Hamster Corporation as part of their Arcade Archives series.^[5][6] The game is also included on SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, containing both the original arcade and the NES version.^[7] It includes both the Japanese version and the Western/international version.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed ASO as the second most successful table arcade cabinet of November 1985.^[8] The magazine later listed it as Japan's fifth highest-grossing table arcade game during the first half of 1986,^[9] and the seventh overall highest-grossing table arcade game of 1986.^[9][10]

Notes

1. Japanese: エー・エス・オー - アーマード・スクラム・オブジェクト, Hepburn: Ē Esu Ō - Āmādo Sukuramu Obujekuto

External links

• Alpha Mission at Arcade-History
• Alpha Mission at the Killer List of Videogames