Alien 3

Alien 3 SNES is a 1993 single-player action game from Probe Software, published by LJN for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It adapts the setting of the third Alien film while taking major liberties with its action: Ellen Ripley arrives at the Fiorina 161 prison colony after the Sulaco's escape vehicle crashes, only to find the facility threatened by Xenomorphs. Rather than following the film scene by scene, the game turns Ripley into an armed survivor charged with restoring order across the colony's industrial maze.

The Super NES release is a side-scrolling, exploration-heavy run-and-gun built around six large stages. Ripley can run, jump, climb ladders, use elevators, crawl through connecting passages, and enter doors as she searches through corridors and machinery rooms. Hostile adult Aliens and Facehuggers keep the pressure on, while the equipment found during a stage gives the player the means to keep moving through the colony. It is a one-player game, and its password feature lets players resume progress after clearing portions of the campaign.

Each stage begins with a set of assignments delivered through computer terminals. Rescue missions are central, but the tasks can also require Ripley to weld doors closed, repair damaged pipes, fuses, or junction boxes, and destroy Alien eggs. Terminal screens also provide blueprints for the surrounding area, making the game as much about reading the facility and choosing a route as simply shooting what appears on screen. Completing the required work opens the way to the next stage, and a countdown clock makes wasted movement or a missed objective costly.

Ripley's arsenal is deliberately much broader than the one available in the film. Pulse-rifle fire, grenade-launcher attacks, flamethrowers, and other pickups provide different responses to enemies and obstacles, while med-kits help her survive sustained attacks. The shifting objectives mean that ammunition, health, route knowledge, and time all matter at once. The final confrontation raises the stakes further with the colony's mother Alien, providing a boss-focused end to a campaign otherwise structured around rescue and repair operations.

This Alien 3 is not the same game as the 1992 Genesis, Amiga, or Master System versions, nor is it the overhead Game Boy adaptation or the separate NES release. Probe's Super NES version has its own graphics, stage design, mission system, and six-stage structure, giving it a more task-driven rhythm than a straightforward series of run-and-gun levels. Its dark prison setting, motion-tracker-style Alien tension, terminal objectives, and film license make Alien 3 SNES a distinctive 16-bit interpretation of Fiorina 161.