Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection — Hands-On Impressions
Updated: Oct 7
Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection is a proper legacy release rather than a remake, and for long-time
Amiga fans, that is probably exactly what you want.
After spending a couple of hours with the collection, my overall feeling is very positive, although not every game in the package has aged equally well.
The biggest strength is the 2D Alien Breed games. They are still incredibly unforgiving, but that is also part of what makes them so rewarding. You have to learn the maps, conserve resources, understand when to push forward and when to retreat, and accept that failure is part of the experience.
In my opening runs, I repeatedly ran out of ammunition and found myself fleeing through corridors rather than fighting. I also overlooked the floor arrows until a viewer pointed them out, which helped me make sense of the route. That is where the challenge became clearer: aiming is only part of the job. Learning the layout and keeping enough keys and ammunition to make progress matter just as much, and the improved controls do not remove that pressure.
What surprised me most was just how much better these games feel with modern controls. Playing Alien Breed with a twin-stick gamepad is a genuine game changer. It keeps the original gameplay intact while making movement and aiming feel much more natural for a modern player.
One small detail genuinely caught me off guard: standing behind a jet engine, I discovered that its exhaust pushed my character back and hurt me if I got too close. I stopped to marvel at the fact that Team17 had included that interaction all those years ago. It made the scenery feel like part of the challenge rather than just a backdrop and reminded me that revisiting an old game can still mean discovering something new.
The collection also gives you plenty of options for how you want to experience the games. There is widescreen support, but if you want something closer to the original presentation, you can use classic borders and scanline effects. Being able to switch between different versions of certain games, including ECS, AGA and CD32 releases, is another excellent touch for fans interested in the history of the series.
This is not simply a collection of old games dropped into a menu either. There are several modern quality-of-life improvements including save and load functionality, improved controller support, co-op and an unlockable Horde Mode.
The museum is one of my favourite parts of the entire package. It contains a large amount of archive material and gives you a genuinely interesting look back at Alien Breed and its history. For anyone who grew up with the Amiga, there is a lot here to enjoy beyond simply replaying the games.
The 3D titles are where things become much more difficult.
Alien Breed 3D was the weakest part of my session. I struggled to read the low-resolution environments and work out how to move through them comfortably. Alien Breed 3D2: The Killing Grounds made a better first impression because I could see more clearly, although I still found myself getting lost and fumbling weapon changes under pressure. Neither felt as comfortable to revisit as the 2D games.
That said, this is a legacy collection, and preserving those games as they originally were is arguably part of the point. Not every part of gaming history has aged perfectly, but there is still value in having those games available and preserved alongside the stronger entries.
Overall, Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection does an excellent job of preserving the series while adding just enough modern improvements to make the experience more comfortable today.
The 2D games remain brutally difficult but highly rewarding, the twin-stick controls are a massive improvement, and the museum and presentation options make this feel like much more than a basic retro compilation.
The 3D titles are harder to recommend on their own, but as part of the complete history of Alien Breed, they still belong here.
If you are an old Amiga fan, this is a no-brainer.
Review copy provided by Terminals.io.
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