Weird Games: Alive

I was a fan of FMV (Full Motion Video) games, not so much as a player but as a watcher. Honestly, those games were often way to hard and cheesy even for a teenager. You would think that if all you had to do was act out a video game, movie style it would produce some great games. Sadly that was not the case.

Case and point is this PlayStation One game from 1998 called Alive. This game was created by the now bankrupt, General Entertainment. I mean with a name like that is it surprising that they failed? This game featured a 20 year old Japanese girl that is accused of murder. Like in classic games such as, Dragon’s Lair, you needed to make quick movements and commands and make sure they are the correct ones or you die and its game over.

Now the game is in Japanese, but you can piece together the story from the video, sort off. As stated you are accused of murder and must fight to prove your innocence. Of course you are being hunted by the cops and there are a ton of dangers you have to avoid. You are in a futuristic city even though it says 2003 they have tech that looks way beyond that, then again it is Japan.

To say the graphics are bad is an understatement, but I guess you can give them a little slack, but just a little. As a side note and because I am a sick puppy, I laughed really loud watching this video and seeing the “vibrator on” open on the title screen. You play as Atsuko-Kawada and while the game starts off peaceful it isn’t long before you realized something is wrong and you need to get out of there.

So the gameplay works like this. During some sequences you have three choices, active, cleaver and escape. You have a limited amount of time to choose one and the wrong one can delay you or give you the game over screen. Later in the game you get additional choices to make such as, when you are driving you can go left or right or go up or down. Once you have a weapon you will get a moving target indicator and will need to time your shots to hit the enemy. Failure to do so almost certainly spells doom.

As stated the graphics are not that great. Obviously it is FMV, but the added animation is not well done. You can really see this in the car crash and explosions scenes. It is pretty bad. You can also tell in the gun shots that they use squibs, but all this goes along with the bad acting and overdone death scenes. If there is something I would say this game is known for it is the death scenes, especially the knifing scenes and the abrupt Game Over screen with what sounds like a cheap version of the Law and Order gong.

Full disclaimer, I never got to play this game. There are like no articles or wiki’s on it. I had to piece together everything from the videos. However, the game is interesting enough that it deserves to be talked about if nothing else, but to watch some of the videos and have a good laugh.

Visits: 2219