Area 51

An easy way to sum up Area 51's arcade success perfectly: "It was kind of fun, responsive, and cheap to make." That's true, too, for the Saturn version. While obviously not in Virtua Cop 2's class, Area 51 makes an entertaining half-hours worth of light gun goodness.

A51 belongs to the gun game variant known as the FMV shooter. Using digitized characters and backgrounds, Atari manages to get a realistic looking environment at the expense of video resolution. Grainy but serviceable is the order of the day.

You and a friend can play as members of STAAR, an anti-alien group that needs to seal off Area 51, that infamous Air Force test grounds in Nevada where real life aliens are supposedly stored. If you haven't heard about it, then you been a hermit for the last 2 years.

Basically, shoot anything that moves except the blue-suited STAAR units. They're useless, and shooting them takes off a life unit, like VC2's civilians. Aliens and zombies are conveniently marked in bright, neon colors (red, green, purple, orange) so you don't have to pick out enemies on dark backgrounds.

The game is pretty configurable, down to choice of blood and guts. However, the gun calibration isn't as robust as Virtua Cop 2, and doesn't have enough goodies for sustained play.

However, levels are well designed, providing an equal amount of suspense and action, and play well, in both one or two-player modes. However, like Virtua Cop 2, this game is over all too soon, possibly due to FMV limitations. This is a fun game, and a good complement to Sega's VC games.