Differences between the American/European versions and the Japanese version of Aliens for the arcade

From Cypher's FAQ on GameFAQ's:

The Japanese Version of the ALIENS arcade game is unlike any other edition available in any other country in the world. Most of these changes are minor, but some are truly noteworthy. On the whole, they make the game easier.  They are documented herein.

A. Deletions

1. Most obviously, both APC driving levels have been entirely deleted.

2. As such, the subplot of rescuing Newt is gone. Therefore, Newt never appears in Stage 1.

3. When you take on the [four aliens that expand] as documented in the Stage 5 section of this FAQ, the first one to fully enlarge hops off-screen, leaving you to only battle the other three.

4. Many of the aliens, zombies, and mid-bosses can be killed with fewer shots.

B. Additions

   
1. Two new kinds of minor enemy appear in the game.
       
a. An adult alien bursts out of the background wall during the vent portion of what we consider Stage 5.  It functions much like the Ground-Poppers and is destroyed just as easily,but with new animations and from a different angle.  It is the only one of its type in the game.

b. The small form of the Shrinky-Dink Alien, as seen in the form of the second mid-boss in Stage 5, reappears in Stage 7.  It stands alone on the catwalks with a ring of orange energy circling it and the catwalk in a kind of "shield." A few shots destroy it.

2. Titles have been given to each level.  They are as follows, transcribed as they appear in the game.

a. Level 1 Living Quarters
b. Level 2 Factory
c. Level 3 Factory2
d. Level 4 Queen Alien's DEN
e. Level 5 Escape Route
f. Level 6 Battle Ship SULACO   

3. Special weapons and bombs appear much more frequently in the game, dropping from the sky for the players to use at regular intervals.

4. It is now possible to attain 1-ups in the game.  If a player is still carrying a weapon from the last special weapon power-up, the next one to fall on-screen will contain a 1-up.  It comes in the form of a red ribbon with a bow wrapped around the word "1up".

5. In addition to the other enemies in this section, ground-popping aliens now appear earlier, during the nest portion of what we know as Stage 3.

6. In addition to the other enemies, flying aliens now appear during the first power loader segment, in Stage 3.
   
7. Flying aliens are much more frequent throughout the outdoor portion of Stage 5 and Stage 7.

8. Extra exploding barrels appear throughout the game.

C. Other Changes

1. Numerous aliens have changed color.  Adult aliens are now purple instead of maroon, face-huggers are now flesh-toned instead of green, etc.

2. Many of the adult aliens in the elevator sequence of Stage 3 have been removed.  They have been replaced with flying aliens that do NOT damage the cables.  This makes this sequence much easier.

3. The beams from the 3-Way gun have changed color from purple to orange.
   
4. During the final battle, the queen does NOT breathe fire/acid at you.  Instead, after flashing white, she sends out multiple images of herself as a projectile! These are wider and therefore are easier to be hit by.

5. The queen charges at you constantly even if you are  in the power loader.  This makes the final battle much more difficult.

lukenuetzmann plays Aliens - Part 4 of 4

Game over, man!

Final Battle against the Queen

This one is a bit difficult. You'll have to get in the loader and not only punch out the Alien Queen, but you'll also have to use your Flamethrower to hit it from a distance. When it starts flashing, you've made some progress. Prepare to lose a lot of quarters here.

When the chute at the right side of this area opens, press the primary fire button repeatedly to grab it. Then keep pressing the primary fire button while moving the Alien Queen towards the shaft. From this point, you can stop pressing it so you drop her in the shaft. Congratulations! You did it!

You can shoot her to death, but that takes a very long time. When you do, you get to see all the chunks of her fly out into space instead of the whole Alien Queen.

lukenuetzmann plays Aliens - Part 3 of 4

Will our heroine Ellen Ripley pull through? C-C-C-C-C'MON!!! and watch this video to find out!

Level 3

(continued)

Once you climb up the ladder, you'll be dealing with more Aliens that come out of the floor. You'll also start seeing Gargoyles for the first time, and they're really annoying as they fly in and out.

The boss here are two blue Aliens that try to run into you at the same time. Focus your attacks on one of them before you go after the other, and avoid the lightning that hits the ground. If you see a small dome of electricity on the ground, don't stand there - lightning is about to strike in that spot in about a second.

Sometimes, they'll send a pulse of electricity that goes from one Alien to the other. It's kinda hard to dodge, unless you see the lightning strike their heads (a sure-fire way of knowing they're going to do this).

When you kill one of them, the other stays on the screen full-time and shoots electricity at you. Keep shooting at as it creates the three lightning blasts that it will send all over the screen, and avoid the electricity.

Level 4

This one isn't long.

If you need a weapons power-up, go get it. If you need energy, go get it.

The boss here is the Alien Queen. Avoid the Facehuggers (take down the Eggs if you need to) and take down the Aliens that come out of the ceiling, and take down the egg sac of a tail that it has. When you completely destroy it, you've taken down the Alien Queen.
 

Level 5

As you cross the narrow corridors, you'll see purple ooze on the floor that crawl around for a second before turning into an Alien. These guys aren't very difficult at all.

You'll soon see the Level 3 mini-boss again. This time around, it'll use its babies as weapons. Stay away from it as you take it down, and take down the eggs if you have to, since they'll be constantly floating around and slowly coming towards you.

At the end, you'll be able to board a ship. Get in.

lukenuetzmann plays Aliens - Part 2 of 4

Are we enjoying the game so far? I hope we are, because you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Level 2

(continued)

Get in the loader and keep presssing the fire button. This will let you take down anything in your path. Avoid the wrecking balls that come down and punch at the walls that block your path in order to get them to move out of the way.

The meat gives you two units of energy. It's not much, but it's something.

You'll start seeing Aliens come out of the floor to try and scratch at you. What's really interesting is that you actually see this in Alien: Resurrection, which wouldn't come out for another eight or nine years. As you progress, you'll see people stuck to the walls. They're going to die, though, because Alien offspring are about to pop out of their chests.

You'll also start seeing sacs with Aliens in them as well as Facehugger eggs. Shoot the sacs down to reveal the Aliens (which are pretty weak) and destroy the Facehugger eggs to continue on and get rid of any Facehuggers that spawn.

The dark room at the end is another boss. Shoot down (or avoid) the Aliens that surround it, as they'll come after you one by one. When they're all gone, shoot the boss's head as it pops in and out, while avoiding its tentacle-like arms. Thankfully, if you're not that close to them, you can shoot the tentacles down as well. As it loses health, it will keep shooting those brown sacs at you as it keeps popping its head in and out.

It's another car level after this. This time around, you'll have to deal with crates in addition to Aliens. If you can't shoot the crates down in time, stay away from them when they go over the wall. When you make it to the end, you'll meet Newt again. This time, he'll be safe.

Level 3

Avoid the black silhouettes as they move across the floor, and shoot them when they turn into Aliens.

You'll soon start seeing green globs of acid go through the floor. Avoid these blobs as you keep fighting the enemy forces.

After you get the weapon power-up and the health power-up (if you need them), you'll see a vent which generates Facehuggers as long as it's on-screen. Destroy it so you won't have to deal with them.

The boss here is a spider-like Alien that shoot a whole bunch of flesh-colored orbs around it. Stay away from the orbs, and keep shooting from a crouching position. If you have a powerful weapon such as Flame, you'll be able to take it down in no time.

You'll then climb your way down automatically, and then you'll continue on with the game. You'll be entering some vents again, so check your radar to see if stuff is going to come out of the ceiling (or the floor vents) and attack you.

Once you're out of there, you'll be waiting for electric barriers to disappear. After a while, you'll fall through the floor again. Stay on the upper half of this section so you won't have to deal with all the crap that's going on down below.

When you go down the next ladder, you'll take on four red Aliens that expand in size when you shoot them down. When they stay big, you're really close to destroying them, and when you do, they explode. Just make sure they don't jump on you.

Stay away from the aliens that are clinging onto the underside of the steel floor, as they'll shoot some sort of plasma-like projectile at you from there. When you see the two barrels, get to the far right and destroy them from behind so you won't have to deal with those Aliens underneath the floor anymore. After that, you'll climb another ladder.

lukenuetzmann plays Aliens - Part 1 of 4

57 years later...

Not much to explain here. Just running, gunning, crouching, and dead aliens.

Level 1

Aside from your standard gun (which you can also perform rapid fire with just by holding the fire button down), you can also find power-ups that switch between the more powerful weapons: 3 Bullets (which shoots three bullets in one shot), 3-Way (a more powerful version of 3 Bullets), Missiles (which shoots missiles), and Flamethrower (which shoots a flame that destroys everything it comes in contact with).

You also have bombs which you can throw onto the ground and cause some explosions with. Throw one down and blow up everything in its vicinity!

The enemies at the beginning here are your standard fare. As you make your way through the game, though, you'll see some enemy designs that weren't in any of the movies...proof that Konami had a hell of a lot of fun making this.

When you reach the hallway with the red floor, you're about to take on your first mini-boss. Move away from his head, which is the weak point. As it turns from blue to purple to red, stay away from it as it comes towards you. When you blow its head off, avoid the LSD-like fireballs that come out of its body and keep shooting it. Pretty soon, it'll explode.

You'll then enter a driving sequence where you're at the front of a car and you'll be shooting down some aliens while moving to the next level. You have three missiles near you, which prove to be a useful secondary weapon. When you make it to the end, you'll meet Newt (the kid from the [i]Aliens[/i] movie) only to see him get kidnapped.

Level 2

This is based on the air duct scene from the movie. Thankfully, you have radar so you can tell at a glance if there are enemies ahead (or behind you). Be ready to see some crazy enemy designs, such as a floating Alien head and Aliens that throw bombs from the vents in the walls...and avoid the jets of steam!

When you make your way out of the vents, you'll come across an elevator. Take down the tap-dancing Aliens (I think they're tap-dancing), especially if they're on the roof of the elevator. If all three cables come apart, the elevator will fall and you'll take some damage as a result.

If you ever see a canister flashing multiple colors, break it. You could find power-ups for your gun or something that will refill your health. You never know.

You'll also see orange and white barrels. If you ever see these things, shoot them down. Green facehuggers will crawl out of them. They're not that bad, but they keep spawning as long as the barrels are on-screen.

After the elevator ride, you'll meet up with some zombies. These things were the ones that through those fire bombs through the vents earlier, and now these guys have machine guns. You'll also see some black orb rolling around everywhere. This is the boss, but you won't fight it just yet.

Anyway, avoid the gray ooze that come out of the wall afterward, and make your way to the other side. You'll find out that the black orb is really an Alien curled into a ball. Duck to avoid the grey bubbles that it shoots out, and stay away from it as it rolls around.

You'll be fighting more zombies, then you'll fall through the floor. Stay on the upper path through this part, otherwise you'll be dealing with the alien offspring that come out of the zombies that are floating in the water. You'll be finding some Super Bombs near the end of this part. They're like the Bombs, but they destroy everything on-screen at once. You'll then come across a Loader...and that's when asses will really be kicked...