Another World (Out of This World) + Heart of the Alien | Cinematic Platformer Paradise

[00:00:03] In an ancient age known as the late 1900s, a video game subgenre took root that dared to be bolder, dreamed to be bigger, and reached for the stars. Did they wow us with expensive productions and advanced graphical techniques? They absolutely did.

[00:00:23] Were they any good? Uh, you know what? Don't worry about it. Let's just relax and revisit cinematic platformers of eons past. This is Cinematic Platformer Paradise.

[00:00:50] Hello, cinematic people. It's your boy Dre once again with my boy Steve.

[00:00:57] My Karuba.

[00:01:01] You can't start that way. How dare you? Yes, you can.

[00:01:06] Welcome back to Cinematic Platformer Paradise. If you've been following along, or even if you haven't, we've been covering games so far such as Prince of Persia and Shadow of the Beast.

[00:01:16] But, this week, we are going to another world.

[00:01:21] And Heart of the Alien.

[00:01:23] It's gonna be out of this way. Wait, I made that joke last episode. I can't- Ah, fuck.

[00:01:29] Oh, people are used to our recycled shit.

[00:01:31] We're gonna do both of these in this one episode, but we're gonna start with Another World.

[00:01:40] Another World was developed and published by Delphine Software for Amiga in November 1991.

[00:01:48] Steve, before this, I did not know Amiga was a target platform.

[00:01:51] And, obviously, I did know that while we were talking about Shadow of the Beast last week,

[00:01:55] because I mentioned, like, you know, the Amiga couldn't do cinematics, real-time cinematics yet.

[00:02:02] But, hey, now we can. It's the 90s, bitch.

[00:02:06] I never considered what the original target platform was.

[00:02:10] It just seemed to appear on things.

[00:02:12] I thought the target platform was Genesis, if you ask me.

[00:02:16] If I were to just have guessed before this, I would have said Genesis.

[00:02:20] I would have said computers with a shrug, maybe?

[00:02:25] Computer!

[00:02:27] Computer!

[00:02:28] Computer!

[00:02:28] It came out for a computer, question mark, question mark?

[00:02:32] But, yeah, obviously, Another World was ported to everything.

[00:02:37] Apple II, DOS, SNES, Genesis, and in 1994, to 3DO for some reason.

[00:02:44] And most of these versions were published by Interplay.

[00:02:47] We're gonna be talking a lot about Interplay as we go along here.

[00:02:51] Well, not literally talking about the company, but their name is going to come up a lot,

[00:02:55] because they were into these, Steve.

[00:02:57] I don't know why.

[00:02:59] Somewhere between these cinematic platformers and Clayfighter,

[00:03:02] they thought, man, things that are stiff sometimes and not so stiff other times

[00:03:08] is gonna be the future.

[00:03:11] Oh, Clayfighter was stiff.

[00:03:13] That game actually felt like you were molding clay to punch people with,

[00:03:17] like, in real time.

[00:03:18] Oh, baby.

[00:03:19] Um, but yeah, published by Interplay.

[00:03:22] So, when Another World originally came to North America,

[00:03:25] it was called Out of This World.

[00:03:27] I think that's how most old heads like us think of that game,

[00:03:31] is Out of This World.

[00:03:33] And the reason for the name change has never been officially stated,

[00:03:37] but a lot of people's speculation revolves around two different things.

[00:03:41] One is because there was a soap opera here in America called Another World.

[00:03:46] Now, that's what I remember, because my aunt watched Another World.

[00:03:50] So, that was like her show.

[00:03:52] And then it got canceled in 1999, and she was just like not the same for six months.

[00:03:58] Not until the year 2000.

[00:03:59] I feel like she finally cheered up.

[00:04:04] Because she watched that shit, man.

[00:04:07] I barely know what that was until you brought it up.

[00:04:10] So.

[00:04:11] Yeah.

[00:04:11] I think it was on NBC.

[00:04:13] I think it was like one of the ones after like the more popular one,

[00:04:16] like Days of Our Lives or something like that.

[00:04:17] I think it's Guiding.

[00:04:18] No, Guiding Light CBS.

[00:04:20] I think Guiding Light's still on.

[00:04:22] Is it?

[00:04:23] Yeah.

[00:04:24] I think it's still on.

[00:04:25] Younger the Restless and Guiding Light are still on.

[00:04:27] I think CBS kept their soaps.

[00:04:29] I know Younger the Restless, but yeah.

[00:04:32] Yeah.

[00:04:32] Younger the Restless is still on.

[00:04:34] Anyway.

[00:04:36] Besides the soap opera Another World,

[00:04:39] there was also that sitcom from the very early 90s syndicated called Out of This World.

[00:04:47] Now that I definitely remember, and I'm sure you do too.

[00:04:51] Yeah.

[00:04:52] There is just no naming this game correctly.

[00:04:56] No.

[00:04:57] But yeah.

[00:04:57] But between those two things, I could understand how it's like, okay,

[00:05:01] we can't call it Another World, but then they changed it to Out of This World,

[00:05:05] which also existed.

[00:05:07] So the whole thing is like a mess, but whatever.

[00:05:09] If I'm being honest, though, I like the name Out of This World better.

[00:05:14] It speaks to like this 50s sci-fi lover in me, I guess.

[00:05:18] I don't know.

[00:05:19] Out of This World.

[00:05:20] I don't know.

[00:05:21] I guess we'll mostly refer to it as Another World.

[00:05:24] Yeah.

[00:05:24] I think that's, well, spoiler alert.

[00:05:27] Well, not really a spoiler alert.

[00:05:28] You can buy it on almost anything you want right now,

[00:05:31] and it's going to be called Another World.

[00:05:34] So we just kind of have to go with it, I think.

[00:05:37] Indeed.

[00:05:37] Why don't you tell the people how Another World came to be?

[00:05:40] Yeah, Another World was the brainchild of Eric Chadi.

[00:05:43] He was being given the opportunity to make a game of his own

[00:05:46] following the completion of Delphine Studios' own Future Wars.

[00:05:50] He was very impressed by the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair.

[00:05:54] Yeah, they stuffed that onto Amiga, and he's like, wow, this is great.

[00:05:59] I've never seen that version.

[00:06:00] I didn't even know it existed.

[00:06:02] Surely it's got to be on Amiga CD.

[00:06:04] It has to be.

[00:06:05] I mean, you ever see it on DOS?

[00:06:08] That's embarrassing.

[00:06:10] But anyway, he ended up writing some kind of polygon routine to work on Amiga

[00:06:17] using Genlock to achieve a whole 20 frames per second for models.

[00:06:24] Wow.

[00:06:24] That's the same as Ocarina of Time.

[00:06:27] Ended up recording himself performing the actions.

[00:06:30] For rotoscoping.

[00:06:31] Yes, for rotoscoping, as we've gone over before.

[00:06:34] But, you know, this doesn't explain the fucking sorcery of how it managed to get on the Genesis

[00:06:39] or Super Nintendo, Andre.

[00:06:41] It sure doesn't.

[00:06:43] And that's why, like, I remember when I was first playing, I remember I was asking you,

[00:06:47] like, how what is going on here?

[00:06:49] How is this possible?

[00:06:51] Are these actually polygons?

[00:06:53] At first, I thought maybe it was very careful manipulation of, like, full screen sprite art,

[00:06:59] but just, like, a whole bunch of them played in, like, a flip show.

[00:07:03] But that would be prohibitively expensive to do on a cartridge.

[00:07:06] That would eat up so much space.

[00:07:07] So it's like, that can't be it.

[00:07:09] So it is real polygons on here.

[00:07:13] And so I did a little bit of research because I was so blown away by the techniques used in

[00:07:18] another world.

[00:07:20] And I'm not going to go into all the technical aspects of how the engine works,

[00:07:24] because we'll be here forever.

[00:07:25] But they did use a lot of trickery, obviously, to get this running on 16-bit platforms.

[00:07:30] And the lady who programmed the SNES version said Interplay was too cheap to pop for the Super

[00:07:36] FX chip.

[00:07:37] Of course they were, right?

[00:07:39] So she had to make it work through, like, a lot of wild RAM tricks to make polygons work

[00:07:46] without that chip.

[00:07:47] And look, the Super Nintendo version isn't the best.

[00:07:51] It runs slow as molasses sometimes.

[00:07:52] But what a fucking legend.

[00:07:55] Like, she made that shit work.

[00:07:57] I cannot remember her name.

[00:07:59] I'm sorry.

[00:08:00] But, like, my God.

[00:08:01] I did play it for a few minutes for purposes of this.

[00:08:05] It's very impressive that they did what they did on there.

[00:08:08] Of course.

[00:08:10] Okay, so the Genesis ad for Another World, or Out of This World, as it was known at the

[00:08:15] time, it featured the tagline, shrink-wrapped time warp.

[00:08:22] And under the list of features, it said, award-winning, cinematically styled, rotoscoped animation.

[00:08:31] So they were using the word cinematic even back then.

[00:08:35] I always wondered where the term cinematic platformer came from.

[00:08:38] I mean, I saw it was a bunch of hoity-toity people who made that shit up.

[00:08:40] Right?

[00:08:41] But maybe that has always been the designation.

[00:08:45] Cinematic.

[00:08:46] I guess so.

[00:08:47] I mean, eventually we're going to get into more robust reviews, and everyone's going to be like,

[00:08:51] wow, this is kind of like Prince of Persia.

[00:08:53] Wow, this is kind of like Another World.

[00:08:55] I mean, people are going to start connecting the dots in a little while.

[00:08:59] Of course, yeah.

[00:09:00] But I think Another World was the first super important one that came out and made a big

[00:09:07] splash.

[00:09:08] I mean, Shadow of the Beast was just not popular here because Amiga.

[00:09:11] And then Prince of Persia had its fans.

[00:09:13] But again, as we said, it took a while to start cooking.

[00:09:16] I think for a lot of people, including myself, Another World is the one that really broke

[00:09:21] this genre to everybody.

[00:09:22] I guess that or flashback, surely.

[00:09:25] It's going to be one of those.

[00:09:27] Sales numbers are always nebulous from this time.

[00:09:30] It got good reviews at the time, it seems, Another World.

[00:09:34] Like all the Amiga magazines gave it like in the 80s and stuff.

[00:09:37] So it wasn't like super duper high praise, but good enough.

[00:09:40] Probably just more impressed by what was going on than the game itself, which is, hey, that's

[00:09:45] a cinematic platform role, right?

[00:09:47] But man, have you ever gone back and looked at scans of like those old Amiga magazines

[00:09:52] from the UK?

[00:09:53] They're kind of wild.

[00:09:54] I love those.

[00:09:55] I love reading that stuff.

[00:09:56] Just any computer enthusiast magazine from the UK is just a wild read.

[00:10:03] Like they didn't give a fuck back then.

[00:10:06] They really did not.

[00:10:09] I never played Another World or Out of This World at the time.

[00:10:13] This was yet another magazine classic for me.

[00:10:15] Always saw it on the shelf, never played it, right?

[00:10:18] But yeah, I never played it until the 20th anniversary version on PS4.

[00:10:23] Yeah, I ended up seeing this around in magazines for sure.

[00:10:26] This was like everyone's favorite game and underrated 16-bit games lists all over the place.

[00:10:32] And like everyone just had it on their list.

[00:10:34] And I have to share a very terrifying truth with the group now.

[00:10:39] Uh-oh.

[00:10:41] Because when we were starting this project, yeah, all I got to do is pull up my Switch and we can play another Out of This World.

[00:10:50] And I'm pulling up the store archive and it's like, you don't have this game.

[00:10:55] You give us 10 bucks for it.

[00:10:57] I'm like, there's no fucking way.

[00:10:58] Of course I have this game.

[00:10:59] And then I'm looking around and I'm like, there's no fucking way.

[00:11:05] So my Wii U is sitting there.

[00:11:08] Oh no.

[00:11:09] And I'm hooking that shit up to the TV.

[00:11:12] Oh.

[00:11:14] And I'm booting that up to the store archive because you can still, even though the store is gone, you're still allowed to look at all your purchases.

[00:11:23] And sure enough, in 2014, 2015, whenever that edition was, Steve bought, played and beat the game there.

[00:11:33] Not on his Switch.

[00:11:34] Oh no.

[00:11:35] Oh, that's how Steve played the game back in the day.

[00:11:39] I know it's always serious when you go third person.

[00:11:42] I know.

[00:11:44] That's something, man.

[00:11:46] Did you play it on the game pad?

[00:11:48] The Wii U game pad?

[00:11:49] Well, it did what a lot of things did.

[00:11:51] It just showed the same game on the screen and on the game pad.

[00:11:54] It didn't do anything fancy.

[00:11:56] Did you take it to the can and play it on the game pad?

[00:12:00] Not for that.

[00:12:02] No.

[00:12:02] Okay.

[00:12:03] This was a TV experience.

[00:12:04] Well, I played it on PlayStation 4 like a normal fucking person on the 20th anniversary edition.

[00:12:11] Oh, well, la-dee-da, Mr. O.

[00:12:12] I get to talk about music and play on my PlayStation 4.

[00:12:17] I know.

[00:12:18] I don't have a Wii U with my game pad on the toilet.

[00:12:22] Yeah, because I wasn't born a fucking sucker.

[00:12:25] That's why.

[00:12:26] I know a bad investment when I see one.

[00:12:31] But yeah, so I played it on PlayStation 4 as well as the Sega CD version package with the sequel Heart of the Alien.

[00:12:39] Okay, Steve.

[00:12:41] It's time to tell everyone the premise of Another World.

[00:12:43] And for this one, I pulled it directly from the magazine ad because I thought the copy was so stupid.

[00:12:50] I wanted you to read that instead of whatever we came up with from the manual.

[00:12:54] So go ahead.

[00:12:55] Tell the people the story of Another World.

[00:13:03] You're so intent on testing your particle accelerator that you've invented that you hardly notice the crackling of a not-so-distant electrical storm.

[00:13:11] Before you can say snap, crackle, pop, a lightning bolt slams through you and your accelerator with deadly accuracy.

[00:13:18] When you finally come to, you have no idea what time or place you're at.

[00:13:22] But you know you're not safe.

[00:13:24] Face it, you're warped.

[00:13:26] Unless you want to start calling this place home, you'll need to dodge, outwit, and overcome a host of deadly aliens, monster guards, and blood-sucking leeches who think you're a delicacy.

[00:13:37] Now, that shouldn't be too hard for a whiz kid like you, right?

[00:13:46] Just unbelievable.

[00:13:48] That's the 90s, everybody.

[00:13:50] That's why we had to read every other page in a magazine.

[00:13:52] Stupid shit like that.

[00:13:56] Just crazy.

[00:13:58] Insider for everyone at home.

[00:14:00] You found this just right before recording, and yeah, we had to.

[00:14:04] We had to.

[00:14:05] That's it now.

[00:14:07] Okay.

[00:14:08] What did you think of Another World?

[00:14:10] Because artistically, since that's what matters the most here, let's be honest.

[00:14:16] Artistically, I think Another World is the best-looking game we're going to cover in this series.

[00:14:22] Straight up.

[00:14:23] And I make this comparison a lot on Fine Time, but this game hits that spot of MTV animation for me, like Liquid Television or Aeon Flux or whatever, right?

[00:14:36] That type of shit.

[00:14:37] It's dark and shadowy, and it's also muted and flat with the blue tones and the colors and stuff and purples.

[00:14:47] It's really cool and mysterious, and it looks like it.

[00:14:51] Even just the intro where you see those yellow car lights slide into view, and it really highlights those tones I was talking about.

[00:15:01] It's like the perfect vibe.

[00:15:03] The vibes are off the charts, Steve.

[00:15:05] See, I'm not going to say it's the best one visually here because there's one I like a bit more further down in our series, but I can't fight against any of that.

[00:15:15] It's untouchable.

[00:15:16] Anything you just said, I can't fight against any of that.

[00:15:18] It looks fantastic.

[00:15:20] It looked fantastic back then.

[00:15:21] It looks great now.

[00:15:23] It looked great 10 years ago on my Wii U when I was playing it.

[00:15:27] Let's just make fun of me for that some more.

[00:15:29] I will.

[00:15:30] Did it look good on the Wii U game pad?

[00:15:32] Sure.

[00:15:33] Sure.

[00:15:34] When I took a second to glance down at it in between getting my ass kicked.

[00:15:39] Oh, it's tough.

[00:15:40] And that's what we talked about with Shadow of the Beast.

[00:15:43] I almost said Super Shadow of the Beast again.

[00:15:47] Where that game is really unforgiving, and you don't know what to do.

[00:15:52] Another World is also unforgiving, but you do know what to do.

[00:15:56] So I think it's interesting that he mentioned Dragon's Lair on Amiga as an inspiration because honestly, that's what I think of Another World as.

[00:16:05] I think of it as the cinematic platform version of Dragon's Lair, especially with the way the game is so bite-sized, Steve, where it's like you die and you get put back.

[00:16:15] Not too far, right?

[00:16:17] They want you to try that portion again.

[00:16:18] That's the same thing as Dragon's Lair, except you're actually controlling it.

[00:16:22] But I'm sure you felt the same way, even before you read that Dragon's Lair connection of his.

[00:16:27] Yeah, I definitely did.

[00:16:29] It's just, I don't know.

[00:16:31] I guess my brain's a little broken sometimes, but look, I know.

[00:16:35] We all know that Dragon's Lair is a very dressed up quick time event sequence.

[00:16:40] And really, in the end, this really is too.

[00:16:42] But as a cinematic platformer, you know me.

[00:16:46] I just seem to have a weird disconnect with, okay, this time we need to get the gun, turn around, do the thing.

[00:16:51] And, you know, just keep doing that.

[00:16:53] This is a me problem.

[00:16:56] Hold on.

[00:16:56] So elaborate for the people.

[00:16:58] What are you talking about?

[00:16:59] Get the gun, turn around.

[00:17:00] You know, there's very specific things the game wants you to do.

[00:17:03] And it wants you to do it like, you know, it's cinematic.

[00:17:07] You need to respond to the things as they appear.

[00:17:10] And you either know these things are coming or you're going to die again and on a loop.

[00:17:15] And, you know, it can be disheartening when you miss the guy again or you miss that jump or whatever else.

[00:17:24] It can, but okay.

[00:17:27] So let's apply this to like the laser disc games.

[00:17:30] Do you feel that way when you play space ace or Dragon's Lair or whatever?

[00:17:33] Time gal.

[00:17:34] See, not as much because, well, one, I can just pretend to feed more quarters and go in.

[00:17:40] But here, I feel like there's more exact actions they require of me to progress.

[00:17:45] In those examples, I just need to push buttons.

[00:17:47] Here, I need to do more exact things.

[00:17:51] And if I don't do those things pitch perfect, it's not going to work.

[00:17:58] That is true.

[00:17:59] I mean, like, it's true.

[00:18:01] Well, rather, it's true in the sense that like, yeah, you need to do some deliberate stuff sometimes.

[00:18:06] But I don't think it's as rigid as what you're purporting.

[00:18:10] I don't think because like in Dragon's Lair, you don't have any action.

[00:18:14] The thing is like, it just keeps going.

[00:18:15] You better press this or press that direction or press the button or whatever.

[00:18:19] Another World, at least like you can walk around freely at some points, take the elevator up and down.

[00:18:25] Oh, this guy's on this floor.

[00:18:26] Okay, let's open that switch.

[00:18:27] Like there is a little bit of that stuff.

[00:18:29] I don't think it's completely rote.

[00:18:32] No, I mean, I guess not.

[00:18:35] But I mean, in the end, the more I replayed it on, again, Wii U.

[00:18:40] Yes, I did play again on Wii U and on Super Nintendo.

[00:18:44] I know.

[00:18:45] I'm thinking this almost might have been better served as a some matter of point and click with a timer on the background.

[00:18:51] Like, you know, Sierra was working on it.

[00:18:52] You ever play Quest for Glory?

[00:18:55] Now I'm really reaching.

[00:18:56] No.

[00:18:57] Well, you had a lot of relaxed moments where it's like, yeah, okay, just take your time here.

[00:19:02] But there were a lot of instances where, yeah, you need to react to this shit right the fuck now.

[00:19:08] And I feel like that could have really been a play here.

[00:19:09] Like, okay, we just broke Buddy the alien out of jail.

[00:19:12] What the fuck do we do now before these guards get here?

[00:19:15] His name is Buddy, isn't it?

[00:19:17] His name is Buddy.

[00:19:19] I figure out the best way to interact with the things before you die and re-save.

[00:19:24] Because, I don't know, unlike Prince of Persia or even Shadow of the Beast, I just feel like it just feels inconsistent.

[00:19:31] What I was doing one time in one attempt doesn't work as well in the next.

[00:19:35] But, again, this might just be me.

[00:19:41] Okay.

[00:19:41] I mean, I have definitely felt that way.

[00:19:43] It's like, wait a second.

[00:19:44] Why didn't my shield come out?

[00:19:45] I was trying to, you know, before the guy comes and shoots me.

[00:19:48] That time he shot me.

[00:19:49] Or it's like, oh, wait.

[00:19:50] I feel like that just went right through my shield.

[00:19:52] I think the game is just a bit wonky in that regard.

[00:19:55] I don't think they're, like, trying to fuck you.

[00:19:57] I think it's just like they work so hard on what this game looked like that they just, you know,

[00:20:03] obviously gameplay takes a backseat in the cinematic platformer genre.

[00:20:07] And that's the tradeoff we're making.

[00:20:09] We get to see this cool shit for something that doesn't play as great or nearly as great as anything else.

[00:20:16] But you get to see this crazy stuff.

[00:20:19] And in my opinion, Another World nails that.

[00:20:24] When you get to see that stuff, when you get to climb to the top of that prison tower and look out there and see, like, the forest or whatever.

[00:20:32] When you get that, like, it's so fucking cool, man.

[00:20:35] Or, like, the set piece stuff where it's like you get locked up in the birdcage, right?

[00:20:39] And you kind of have to swing back and forth, back and forth, and then knock out the guard.

[00:20:43] Shit like that's so cool.

[00:20:45] You know?

[00:20:45] So it's hard for me to argue.

[00:20:47] I understand what you're saying.

[00:20:48] But, like, I think the good here very strongly outweighs the bad.

[00:20:52] But there's a reason why these games were never massively popular.

[00:20:55] And you're nailing it.

[00:20:56] They're just too frustrating for a lot of people.

[00:20:58] And I get it.

[00:20:59] I mean, it definitely is.

[00:21:01] Because I saw it through to the end.

[00:21:04] And I would recommend that, you know, everyone play this game as, like you said, the gameplay has been material of the game's story.

[00:21:12] Everyone needs to, you know, experience the game.

[00:21:14] They do keep reissuing the game.

[00:21:15] But, you know, hey, if you got stupid hands like I do, I won't tell you if you watch it.

[00:21:21] I won't tell you if you watch a playthrough.

[00:21:23] I won't tell anyone.

[00:21:25] I think you should, though.

[00:21:26] I think that's cool if people do.

[00:21:27] Because, like, here's the thing.

[00:21:28] If you know what you're doing in this game, let's say you don't die at all.

[00:21:31] You can beat in, like, 20 minutes.

[00:21:33] Right?

[00:21:33] So the game's real length just comes from you dying.

[00:21:37] That's, like, in figuring out the situation.

[00:21:39] But once you know what that is, you can get in there and just wreck.

[00:21:43] I will admit that I did not look at my playtime for the Wii U version of Another World.

[00:21:48] I was kind of desperate to not be in there.

[00:21:51] I needed to be in 2024.

[00:21:55] Yeah.

[00:21:57] It also, unlike Shadow of the Beast, Another World does have all the, like, stuff like Prince of Persia where you're doing very deliberate jumping up on stuff or jumping over stuff.

[00:22:09] And I really do appreciate that because, again, that's part of the fun difficulty for me.

[00:22:15] Did you get to the part where it's like, you know what fucked me up?

[00:22:18] Where you have to zap that rock and then run away from the water that comes through?

[00:22:23] Yeah.

[00:22:23] Before it, like, washes your ass away.

[00:22:26] That shit stuff.

[00:22:26] That took me a while.

[00:22:27] I didn't understand what I was supposed to do there.

[00:22:29] But now that I know, I can do that part in three seconds, right?

[00:22:32] But that's easy for me to say.

[00:22:33] I played the game.

[00:22:34] I understand.

[00:22:34] But I wasn't frustrated.

[00:22:35] It was like a fun puzzle I wanted to figure out.

[00:22:38] I think that's what I want to stress here.

[00:22:39] All the scenes in the game felt like a puzzle box for me to unlock.

[00:22:43] Okay, they want me to do it this way.

[00:22:45] Oh, that didn't work.

[00:22:46] And again, the generous checkpoint system allows you to do that.

[00:22:49] You don't ever really get set back too far.

[00:22:51] So it's like just, you know, it encourages that kind of experimentation.

[00:22:56] Unlike, again, Shadow of the Beast, which is bunch to fuck you.

[00:23:00] Yeah, between the checkpoints and the game just being compelling in general, it's just you can't help but want to keep going.

[00:23:06] I couldn't help but you want to keep going anyway.

[00:23:11] I okay.

[00:23:12] I think another world is the quintessential cinematic platformer.

[00:23:18] When you think of this genre, it should be another world.

[00:23:21] That doesn't mean that it's the best one.

[00:23:24] I just think it's the most representative of whatever this hard to nail down genre is.

[00:23:31] Another world is it.

[00:23:32] This game has everything.

[00:23:34] I think you will legitimately enjoy yourself unless you're Steve.

[00:23:38] Just kidding.

[00:23:39] Again, like I said, most people out there, this may not be your thing.

[00:23:42] There's a reason why these didn't sell millions and millions of copies.

[00:23:46] But if your tastes are more like mine on this show and you're listening to the series and you're wondering if you want to try at least one of these games, I think another world is it.

[00:23:59] This is the one.

[00:24:00] You're absolutely right.

[00:24:01] I respect this game.

[00:24:03] That's why I used it as the joke example on the top when we said, what is a cinematic platformer?

[00:24:08] Remember back then?

[00:24:09] Whatever.

[00:24:10] Nope.

[00:24:11] I forgot.

[00:24:12] Should we talk about it now?

[00:24:14] Should we talk about the sequel, Heart of the Alien?

[00:24:21] Let's go.

[00:24:30] So unlike Another World, which was developed by Delphine Software, this sequel, Heart of the Alien, was developed by Interplay and published by Virgin Interactive exclusively for Sega CD in June 1994.

[00:24:45] And Steve, I tried to figure out how Interplay had the right to make a sequel over Delphine Software, but I couldn't find anything.

[00:24:53] Interplay published the Super Nintendo version of Another Out of This World, so that was probably the in to get the ball rolling.

[00:25:03] Probably.

[00:25:04] Again, you know, me guessing.

[00:25:06] I can't think of any other reason why this would happen.

[00:25:10] Okay.

[00:25:11] I found a quote from Eric Chahi, and I'm just going to read the entire thing here because this explains the entire production history of this game, Heart of the Alien.

[00:25:21] And I quote, Interplay insisted on making the sequel in order to make the most of the CD-ROM's capabilities.

[00:25:28] After discussion, I agreed.

[00:25:30] 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 that would make the player discover another world with other eyes.

[00:25:43] I could already picture scenes where Lester would be in the background fighting guards.

[00:25:46] His name is Lester.

[00:25:47] His name is in another world.

[00:25:49] Fighting background guards while the player would control the alien in the foreground and then join our first hero, help him, etc.

[00:25:56] The concept was good, but alas, neither the animations nor the game entirely developed by Interplay were up for the job.

[00:26:04] It was a flop.

[00:26:06] Reportedly, quickly after it was released, Chahi made a public statement that the title did not represent his vision of the world he crafted and disowned it altogether from being treated as an official sequel.

[00:26:19] That's kind of a bummer.

[00:26:20] You want to hear something a little nicer?

[00:26:22] Okay.

[00:26:23] We cut it because we did the 90s version of the other story.

[00:26:28] The protagonist of another world's real name is actually Lester Nightshaken.

[00:26:36] Which, to this point of the series, is easily, easily the best name for any of these protagonists.

[00:26:43] No notes.

[00:26:45] Reviews of the time seemed to like Heart of the Alien just as much as Another World, with some even liking it more than Another World.

[00:26:52] But the control issues were noted, but largely glossed over, which, Steve, I guess shows, like, it's the thing I always say about AAA games nowadays, right?

[00:27:01] If it just looks the part, oh, it looks and sounds good.

[00:27:04] Seems like it should be an eight.

[00:27:07] This has been a problem forever, I guess.

[00:27:09] And we never noticed.

[00:27:11] Yeah, because my God, man.

[00:27:14] This, as you can tell already, guys, this is not a good sequel.

[00:27:17] Sorry for the spoilers.

[00:27:18] But any history with this game?

[00:27:21] Obviously, probably not.

[00:27:23] But sorry, I can't dance around this.

[00:27:26] I never heard of this until you brought it up for this project.

[00:27:30] Nobody I knew had a Sega CD.

[00:27:32] I could certainly rent them from video stores.

[00:27:34] And I certainly played a bunch of Sonic CD because that's what stores that would demo a CD would rig up.

[00:27:40] Yeah, play Sonic CD.

[00:27:42] That's what you're going to know.

[00:27:43] Yeah, you dumb kids and people that know what a Sega is.

[00:27:47] But that's way outside the scope of this show.

[00:27:50] But the way everyone likes the original, you'd think they would release these as a set.

[00:27:55] But well, he doesn't like it.

[00:27:59] So that's why.

[00:27:59] Well, I mean, look, I thought of this when they released the 20th anniversary thing.

[00:28:03] I was like, where's Heart of the Alien?

[00:28:05] Well, now I know.

[00:28:07] Yeah, again, another magazine classic for me.

[00:28:10] Always knew this game existed, but I did not have a Sega CD.

[00:28:13] Did not know a single person who had a Sega CD.

[00:28:15] So, of course, I never played it.

[00:28:17] And I didn't even know till like six months ago that Heart of the Alien included another world on it.

[00:28:23] I didn't know it was a twofer.

[00:28:24] I just thought it was Heart of the Alien on Sega CD.

[00:28:28] I guess why not just have both?

[00:28:30] Like we've gone over.

[00:28:31] Neither game is particularly long.

[00:28:34] The length is built in from how many times you get killed by things.

[00:28:38] Exactly.

[00:28:39] Okay, obviously, we don't have to say how we played it.

[00:28:42] We played it on Sega CD via emulation because that's the only way to play it.

[00:28:45] Steve, tell us the story and premise of Heart of the Alien.

[00:28:55] Picking up right where out of this another world ends, Buddy, the alien, flies an unconscious Lester to a torched village.

[00:29:03] He reminisces about his time as chief, giving a valiant effort against the red-eyed slavers that imprisoned him in the first place.

[00:29:11] But considering these people are very much on their tail, how much of a chance do they really...

[00:29:16] It doesn't matter.

[00:29:17] He's got to try to freeze people.

[00:29:19] Even if it kills him.

[00:29:20] And you know the drill.

[00:29:22] It's going to.

[00:29:23] A lot.

[00:29:25] Over and over and over again.

[00:29:29] Oh, boy.

[00:29:32] Steve, this game fucking sucks.

[00:29:35] It's really bad.

[00:29:37] It's a direct sequel, all right.

[00:29:38] It's a very mean-spirited direct sequel.

[00:29:41] Once you sit through the opening sequence meant to show off the CD and...

[00:29:47] Okay, to be fair, it's very pretty.

[00:29:48] It's so cool.

[00:29:49] It's fucking awesome.

[00:29:50] It's great.

[00:29:51] It is.

[00:29:53] Kudos for that.

[00:29:54] But you have to run left, you know, from the same kind of beast thing that tried to maul you in the first game.

[00:30:00] Which, you know, kind of less scary here, if we're going to be fair.

[00:30:05] To grab onto a ledge.

[00:30:07] Okay, fine.

[00:30:08] That's pretty cinematic platform-y.

[00:30:12] Andre, I guess it was maybe the way my display was.

[00:30:14] But I couldn't tell you we were supposed to grab that until about ten maulings or visits to the spike pit later.

[00:30:21] Where I looked up someone else's playthrough, like, oh, I could grab that?

[00:30:26] Oh, it only took you ten times?

[00:30:29] It took me many, many more.

[00:30:31] I'm not...

[00:30:32] At this point, I'm not even sure that if I figured it out.

[00:30:35] I think I may have also looked up a walkthrough.

[00:30:37] How about that, Steve?

[00:30:38] We both got stuck on the opening fucking scene of the game.

[00:30:42] That's not a good sign.

[00:30:45] It's not good.

[00:30:47] I mean, like I said, Another World was frustrating, but I wanted to keep going.

[00:30:52] This was just...

[00:30:54] Nah.

[00:30:55] Yeah, it's like, these games rely on very specific visual language.

[00:31:00] And Another World does it pretty well.

[00:31:02] And that's why that game is fun, to me.

[00:31:04] In Heart of the Alien, it's completely fucked.

[00:31:06] But, like, you're supposed to know visual cues of what you can or cannot do and what you're supposed to jump on or climb or whatever.

[00:31:16] Heart of the Alien is simply not interested in this at all.

[00:31:19] There are so many things that should be obvious that are not obvious.

[00:31:22] And again, if you're going to have a tight Dragon's Lair type of experience, react to this, do that, or whatever in real time, you better make things obvious.

[00:31:33] Now, Dragon's Lair literally does the boop on the screen, shows you where to, like, you know, move the joystick or press your sword button or something.

[00:31:40] But, like, man, Heart of the Alien, I don't know what interplay.

[00:31:45] Interplay, why?

[00:31:47] Okay, we know that they demanded to make this to, you know, show off the CD-ROM technology.

[00:31:54] But, you know, honestly, it feels like it's something halfway done for Amiga, really.

[00:32:00] One misstep, you die swiftly.

[00:32:02] No real ceremony to it.

[00:32:04] Like, I feel like there was, like, some effort in a lot of another world's, you know, deaths.

[00:32:08] But when you die here, the world's most trapped-between-decades password screen pops up before letting you continue again.

[00:32:17] And if Out of this World was considered ahead of its time, and yes, it's very much ahead of its time, I feel like Heart of the Alien's attempt to dazzle with CD-ROM magic feels as stuck to the past as soon as you start.

[00:32:33] You're not wrong.

[00:32:34] And, again, it's unfortunate because it does all the CD stuff that I love, right?

[00:32:39] The Redbook audio.

[00:32:40] And, by the way, like, Another World on Sega CD is really cool to play that way.

[00:32:45] I think that's obviously the best version to play because of said CD-ROM.

[00:32:50] But Heart of the Alien, man.

[00:32:52] The control somehow feels worse.

[00:32:55] I don't know how that managed to happen.

[00:32:57] How does it feel less responsive, even by cinematic platformer standards?

[00:33:03] Maybe they were trying to make a conscious decision because Buddy's a bigger, heavier guy.

[00:33:09] But that really doesn't make it more fun to play.

[00:33:13] And it's not really clear how that whip works either, at least at first.

[00:33:18] It's so specific.

[00:33:19] It's too specific.

[00:33:20] Like, I know how a gun works.

[00:33:22] Okay, enemy there.

[00:33:23] Shoot, shoot, shoot.

[00:33:24] It's like, what does the whip do?

[00:33:26] I don't know.

[00:33:28] You can't whip the beast thing, obviously.

[00:33:31] You can't.

[00:33:31] I mean, like, you can kind of use it to pull down some things.

[00:33:34] But, like, yeah, for the most part, it's – I mean, I understand why they wanted to add something besides the gun.

[00:33:39] But combat in general feels so heavily weighted against you in a way that's just awful.

[00:33:45] I complained a little bit in Another World about, like, okay, you need to put up your shield.

[00:33:49] And then the guys come in and try to blast you.

[00:33:50] And you have your shield up or whatever.

[00:33:52] Steve, in this game, it's just unfair.

[00:33:54] It is just absolutely unfair.

[00:33:56] Like, their shield regenerates so quickly and yours does not.

[00:34:00] You have to do it with this very specific timing now, too.

[00:34:04] As a result, every shootout feels absolutely awful.

[00:34:08] Awful.

[00:34:09] That's the thing that actually made me quit and not come back was the combat because it was so bad.

[00:34:14] I got to this part that was basically Star Wars where you get inside this one place and you're, like, running across.

[00:34:20] And it's actually a cool sequence even though it runs like molasses where it's, like, you're running across.

[00:34:24] It almost looks like a bunch of stormtroopers in the background are coming for you and lasers are coming towards the camera and shit.

[00:34:29] It's so cool.

[00:34:30] But then you have to fight a couple of those fuckers.

[00:34:33] And I'm like, dog, I can't.

[00:34:35] This is.

[00:34:35] You know, it's kind of sad that Joey doesn't like this game because, again, I cheated and watched this game.

[00:34:42] Someone play this game.

[00:34:44] And it's kind of fun to watch, you know, someone be good at it.

[00:34:48] It's just kind of awful to be the one holding the control.

[00:34:53] I completely understand why he does not want to acknowledge this game.

[00:34:58] It's not worth acknowledging.

[00:34:59] I get it.

[00:35:00] And it's like you said, I wish he could, like, fix this up because it's not too far from being good.

[00:35:06] But, man, it's just, you know, I know this is going to sound crazy, but until I played Heart of the Alien, I didn't realize what a delicate balance all this, like, cinematic platformer stuff is.

[00:35:18] It's this very particular mix of parts that need to go just right.

[00:35:25] And Heart of the Alien is a great example of how it can go completely wrong.

[00:35:30] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[00:35:31] And I'm sure there's any number of examples we didn't pick where it did go absolutely wrong.

[00:35:39] Yeah, but this is just the worst.

[00:35:41] Okay, before we shut up about Heart of the Alien, I have one half-baked thought I want you to help me with here.

[00:35:48] Would all of these cinematic platformers have actually been better if they were more like the FMV games of this Sega CD era and 3DO era where you take a lot of control away from the player?

[00:36:04] In fact, the player doesn't really have any, and you just make decisions about stuff, whether it's, like, a choose-your-own-adventure kind of thing or an actual, like, cinematic-like Dragon's Lair Space Ace type of thing.

[00:36:16] Would your fun factor have decreased or increased because of that?

[00:36:20] I understand, like, even at the time, people thought that stuff was gimmicky, but I feel like if they somehow made it good...

[00:36:28] Not all of them, but I think Another World might have benefited from that structure because, like, we went on...

[00:36:35] It's a fairly linear storyline, right?

[00:36:37] You go to the Another World and you...

[00:36:40] Yeah, it's the Another World now.

[00:36:42] You go there and you gotta do the things.

[00:36:45] It's pretty clear on what's going on.

[00:36:47] We're following along the story.

[00:36:50] I feel like that one in particular might have benefited from that, but we'll never really know, right?

[00:36:56] No, we will not.

[00:36:57] But, you know, I guess I just think about it that way because, you know me, I love video games as spectacle.

[00:37:03] It's something I talk a lot about on this show.

[00:37:05] And what is a cinematic platformer if not spectacle?

[00:37:07] You're supposed to go ooh and ah and look at the stuff, right?

[00:37:10] So just let us look at the stuff.

[00:37:12] Don't, like, beat us into submission with, like, 1,400 guards trying to shoot us every second.

[00:37:16] Just let us enjoy.

[00:37:18] Let us enjoy the 90s.

[00:37:20] God damn it.

[00:37:22] Snap, crackle, pop.

[00:37:25] What are you doing?

[00:37:26] Let's get out of here.

[00:37:27] That's all you had for me?

[00:37:28] Jesus Christ.

[00:37:30] Wait, where are we ranking these?

[00:37:32] Okay, I know you're not going to let me put Another World above Prince of Persia.

[00:37:37] I know you're not going to let me do that.

[00:37:38] I guess it has to go number two, right?

[00:37:41] I would say so.

[00:37:43] Fine.

[00:37:44] Jeez.

[00:37:44] If I had it my way.

[00:37:46] And then Shadow of the Beast, definitely Heart of the Alien is worse than Shadow of the Beast.

[00:37:51] Absolutely.

[00:37:51] So we're putting that at the bottom.

[00:37:54] So our current rankings are Prince of Persia number one, Another World number two, Shadow of the Beast number three, Heart of the Alien number four.

[00:38:02] Next week on Cinematic Platformer Paradise, here's your hint.

[00:38:07] Here's next Conan's hint.

[00:38:09] If you're in the dark, be sure to turn your back before the blinding flash.

[00:38:16] Shh.

[00:38:17] They'll never figure that one out.

[00:38:22] See you next time on Cinematic Platformer Paradise.