Aleste Gaiden

Controlling the soldier Raymond Waizen, protagonist of the first game wearing a cybernetic ninja suit, the player must overthrow the supercomputer DIA 51 by fight waves of enemies and bosses, while avoiding collision with their projectiles and other obstacles.

• Title — Aleste Gaiden • Developer — Compile • Publisher — Compile • Producer — Masamitsu Niitani • Designer — Kōji Mizuta Zod Hoshijima • Programmer — Kōji Mizuta Takafumi Tanida • Artist — Hiroshi Ryūōin • Composer — Masanobu Tsukamoto Keiji Takeuchi Toshiaki Sakoda • Series — Aleste • Platforms — MSX2 • Released — September 8, 1989 (Disc Station Special 4 Autumn) • Genre — Vertically scrolling shooter • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot. Aleste Gaiden is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up game. The plot takes place in an alternative continuity and follows Raymond Waizen, protagonist of the first Aleste game, who wears a cybernetic ninja suit in order to overthrow the supercomputer DIA 51. Its gameplay differs from the original entry; the player controls Raymond instead of a ship through five increasingly difficult stages over a constantly scrolling background, populated with an assortment of enemy forces and obstacles such as pits that must be avoided by jumping, and the scenery never stops moving until a boss is reached, which must be fought to progress further. Unlike other Aleste titles, enemies move in a preset formation instead of being determined by an artificial intelligence. There are three types of power-ups that can be collected by the player, which come in capsules marked with a chikara symbol, as well as equip Raymond with shadow clones of himself. Gaiden employs a checkpoint system in which a downed player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying. However, the player respawn immediately when fighting a boss. Getting hit will result in losing a life, as well as a penalty of decreasing Raymond's firepower to his original state and the game is over once all lives are lost.

Aleste Gaiden was created by Compile, which had previously developed Aleste (1988) for Master System and MSX2. It was produced by Masamitsu Niitani, with Kōji Mizuta and Zod Hoshijima serving as the co-designers. Mizuta also acted as co-programmer alongside Takafumi Tanida, while character designs were provided by Hiroshi Ryūōin. The music was scored by Masanobu "Mats" Tsukamoto, Toshiaki Sakoda (of MUSHA), and Keiji Takeuchi under direction of Masatomo Miyamoto. Other staff members collaborated with its production as well. The game was included as part of the autumn special edition of Disc Station, a monthly disk publication by Compile, released on September 8, 1989. Due to not receiving a full retail title, the autumn edition of Disc Station commands high prices on the secondary game collecting market.