Alien Challenge
(Also known as Huang Fei Hong) is the first video game made by Taiwan based International Games System (IGS) in 1994.
The next (and better acclaimed) fighting game by IGS was 1998’s The Killing Blade, which was then followed up by the much-loved Martial Masters, which would be released in 1999 (with releases in arcades in Japan in 2000 and North America in 2001).
This game provides examples of:
- Anime Chinese Girl: Melanie is arguably an invocation of this trope, being that she has a few moves similar to that of Chun-li and also dresses herself like that of the legendary Chinese hero Hua Mulan.
- Braids of Action: Nic-San, a male example, keeps his hair in a mandarin queue.
- Chrome Champion: Stevareno, who has golden skin.
- Dub Name Change: All the characters have Chinese names different from their English ones, and these names are more serious than what the English names were:
- Burnie is “Firefox”
- Drew is “Blackjack”
- Dougster is “Thunderbolt”
- Fang is “Werewolf”
- Jean-Paul is “Sheng Long”
- Melanie is “Mulan”
- Nic-San is “Wong Fei Huang”
- Stevareno is “Thousand Faces Man”
- Claus is “Old Man of the Arctic”
- Eagleland: The football player Dougster plays this straight. Largely averted by Stevareno who doesn’t embody any particular stereotypes of Americans.
- Excuse Plot: The opening Wall of Text explains who the fighters are and why they in combat with each other: “Long time ago, eight arrogant gods always found each other’s faults which annoyed the Celestial World. Finally Celestial the age demoted and excelled (sic) them as eight fighters in the mundane world. They were expected to discipline themselves with enormous mundane experiences and challenges then serve as eight loyal guards in the Celestial World after completing their toils.”
- Expy: Melanie is modeled on the legendary Hua Mulan.
- Fartillery: As the quote above shows, Drew does such a thing as a part of some of his attacks.
- Fighting Clown: Drew is a literal example as he is a clown in a circus.
- Final Boss: Claus
- Improbable Weapon User: Nic-San throws umbrellas at his foes.
- McNinja: Jean Paul, who is a man from a western country who has learned ninjutsu.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Fang in his intro will go from human to werewolf form, but when defeated turns into a beagle.
- Playing with Fire: The Human Torch-like fighter named “Burnie”.
- Prehensile Hair: Nic-san and Claus use their hair in battle, though in the latter case he uses his beard.
- Punny Name: Say out loud “Nic-San”… does it sound familiar? Like a former President of the United States?
- Rubber Man: Stevareno can stretch his limbs inhumanly long and can also shapeshift himself in to other forms (such as a hammer). Drew can also stretch out his neck.
- The Smurfette Principle: Melanie is the only female fighter on the roster.
- Torpedo Tits: Melanie is able to use this as her projectile attack.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Burnie, Fang, and Stevareno.
