Men in Black II: Alien Escape

Back for an out-of-this-world blastfest!

EU release: 7th February 2003
NA release: 8th April 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Infogrames Melbourne House, Tantalus
Publisher: Infogrames
NGC Magazine: 45%
Mods Used: None

While it’s called Men in Black II, this game is not based on the film. It’s barely based on Men in Black. While it claims to feature Agents J and K, these are completely different characters to their film versions. It’s not just a case that they don’t have the rights to the likenesses, but their personalities are also nothing alike.

Then when it comes to gameplay, it feels like someone found an early PS1 prototype game and just gave it a new coat of paint. The controls are what you’d expect on a pre-DualShock controller. The left analogue turns and goes forward and backward (with no analogue movement) while the shoulder buttons strafe left and right. The C-stick isn’t used at. This control scheme was outdated when the first Turok came out, so it’s crazy seeing it so many years later.

The rest of the game doesn’t fare much better, either. You play as J of K and just blast waves and waves of enemies until the barriers blocking your progress vanish, and that’s the entire game. Sometimes you’ll need to wonder back and forth for enemies that spawn behind you. As you can’t aim up, the height of your shots is done automatically and there’s zero feedback for hitting an enemy or being hit. At the very least, the cloud of dust when each enemy is vaporised is quite satisfying.

There’s only five levels, all of them immensely bland, with no coop to try and inject a bit of fun. Not that it would have done much good, this is the kind of bad that isn’t even amusing to make fun of.

Worst

You could dispatch the same aliens the same way all day – and probably with your eyes closed. It features all the film’s weapons, and all your favourite aliens but that doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to a game that feels out of place and out of time. Just like the film it’s based on.
NGC Magazine #78

Remake or remaster?

Nothing meaningful here.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Men in Black II: Alien Escape