Alien Syndrome/Gameplay

Controls

 * Joystick: Use the joystick to guide Ricky or Mary throughout each space station. They can move in eight different directions.
 * Fire button: Press the fire button to shoot your weapon. If you have an options following you, pressing the fire button will cause them to shoot behind you in the opposite direction.
 * 1 or 2 Players: Press either button to begin a one or two player game.

Players
When you begin a new game, player one is given the opportunity to select which character he or she wishes to play as: Ricky or Mary. In a two-player game, the second player has no choice but to control the character that player one did not select. The differences between these two characters are only visual; they play identically to one another. Neither character has any advantages or disadvantages over the other.

Throughout the game, you control Ricky or Mary using the joystick and the fire button. Use the joystick to move them in any of eight directions as you navigate each space station in search of comrades to rescue. Tap the fire button to continuously shoot your weapons at hostile aliens who attempt to stop your rescue efforts.

You begin the game with an ordinary gun that can shoot small bullets. As you explore each space station, you will discover other weapons and items in containers along the walls. Simply walk up to a container to open it an obtain its contents. You can collect new weapons, option robots, and bonus points in this manner. Note that once you pass through the exit and engage in battle with the boss of the round, you cannot change your weapon. Furthermore, when you defeat a boss and advance to the next round, you will return to the normal gun.

Ricky and Mary cannot survive contact with any of the aliens for the various projectiles that they launch, so you must keep your distance and avoid running into them at all costs. When Ricky and Mary are killed, they lose one life. Provided they have lives remaining, they return to the screen right where they died, and are briefly invulnerable to attack for just a few seconds. Typically, you begin the game with three lives, and there is only one mechanism to earn extra lives: by being lucky enough to find one behind a "?" container. Once you lose all your lives, you may continue from the start of the round where you died by purchasing more credits.