A lot can happen in five years. Labor can lose more elections, terrorists go from being funny foils in action movies to a clear and present danger, and in the case of Alien Hominid, a quirky Flash demo can become a full-fledged retail game with its own range of toys. Back in 2002, Alien Hominid debuted on Newgrounds as a single-stage demo, and it was an instant hint thanks to its excessive comic violence and old-school gameplay. This success prompted the formation of The Behemoth, who set about rebuilding the game from the ground up for a cross-platform console release in 2005. Now in 2007 Alien Hominid is back, this time in glorious high-definition – and for a greatly reduced price – on Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service.

On the off-chance that you were never linked to the original game on Newgrounds, or that you managed to miss screenshots or videos from the Xbox version, Alien Hominid tells the story of a bright yellow alien whose ship is shot out of the sky, only to come crashing down to earth in an anonymous American city. The FBI are on the scene quickly to confiscate the poor little fella's ship (and some kid's ice-cream), but in their haste they forget to actually grab the *alien* as well. Thus begins one alien's fight to survive...that, or take a whole helluva lot of mean humans with him.

Alien Hominid HD is the high-definition remake of the console released game, featuring 16 levels in 3 different locations, as well as a half-dozen weird mini-games to keep you busy. The game is easily and often compared to the obvious side-scrolling shooter classics like Metal Slug or Contra (the latter is also available on the Live Arcade), but its novel premise, unique visuals and perverse sense of humour really make it stand on its own. In fact the eye-popping HD visuals really jump off the screen in a way the Xbox version never quite managed, and there's so much carnage on screen at any one time that it's almost enough to send you into an eye-candy induced coma.

Once you've adjusted to Alien Hominid HD's brilliant graphics, you'll come to realise just how old-school the underlying game mechanics are. One single bullet or attack from an enemy is enough to kill you and use up one of your lives, although you're given a number of continues as well, which varies depending on the difficulty you choose. The first few times you play the game, no matter the difficulty, Alien Hominid HD will feel like an impossible task – it's a testament to just how much modern-day games coddle us and forgive our lack of skills. "Accessible” is not a buzz-word you'll see gracing the page of any Alien Hominid HD press release...this is hardcore arcade action of yore without a doubt.

Of course, this makes it pretty frustrating at first, but the sense of satisfaction you gain from finishing a level or beating a boss is consequently a lot higher as well. And if that isn't enough to keep you going, you'll want to persist simply to see what The Behemoth come up with next. Man-eating Yeti and bouncing babushka bear-bombs are only the tip of an iceberg that encompasses urban mayhem, icy Soviet strongholds and – of course – Area 51. And everything you come across and kill has some manner of hilarious comic death animation which makes the whole thing very satisfying.

It's pretty amazing that The Behemoth have managed to cram all this content into the original Xbox Live Arcade size-limit of 50MB, and the game never skips a beat or drops a frame, even during the craziest of battles. And on top of that there's the suite of mini-games, including a button-mashing eating competition with the Fat Kid, shooting a piñata, and the hilariously lo-fi Soviet Missile Mastar. Whether a size limitation or a bug we're not sure, but some of the mini-games (Missile Mastar most obviously) have no sound or music which is a bit of a bummer, but overall you'll hardly even notice.

Several of the mini-games include multiplayer over Xbox Live with Leaderboards; a novel proposition for what is essentially a button-mash to see who can eat the fastest, for example. Sadly, co-op play isn't available over Xbox Live and is offline only, but it's a truckload of fun with a mate. The addition of a second alien really makes it near-impossible to follow what is happening on-screen, which only adds to the hilarity. Achievement whores will do well to avoid Alien Hominid HD though: like the main-game, the difficulty of earning points here is fiendishly challenging.

It is also worth noting that at the time of writing, reports of a progress-erasing save bug have been floating around the various tubes of the internet. While it isn't something Xbox World Australia has experienced ourselves, any game that ships with a bug that wipes all your progress when you attempt to save & quit is cause for concern. Hopefully this situation is rectified shortly in a patch.