Red Alarm

Red Alarm is a shoot 'em up that takes place in a three-dimensional (3D) graphical environment. As a Virtual Boy game, it features a red-and-black color palette and stereoscopic 3D visuals, the depth of which may be adjusted by the player. The game is set during the 21st century, in the aftermath of a 70-year world war that led to the establishment of a utopian society without weapons. An artificial intelligence defense system called KAOS, which had been used to end the war, becomes sentient and builds an army to wipe out humanity.

Assuming control of a "Tech-Wing" space fighter, the player seeks to destroy KAOS's forces and finally its mainframe. The game is broken up into six levels, each of which culminates in a boss fight. The player uses the Tech-Wing's laser cannons to attack, and its guided missiles to destroy armored enemies. Shields on the craft offer limited protection from enemy fire; evasion is critical.

Red Alarm was published by Nintendo and developed by T&E Soft, one of the few third-party companies approached to develop for the Virtual Boy. According to the console's creator, Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo tried to "maintain as much control as possible" over Virtual Boy game development so that low-quality releases by outside companies could be avoided. Although T&E Soft was known for golf video games, the design of Red Alarm was inspired by that of Star Fox, a rail shooter for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This decision was considered by Patrick Kolan of IGN to be "a departure for the team".

Unlike many Virtual Boy games, Red Alarm features an engine that displays 3D graphics: the game world is rendered in wire-frame polygonal visuals similar to those of the 1980 arcade game Battlezone. Because of the console's limited technology, solid 3D graphics were not viable.

Writing for Weekly Famicom Tsūshin, Isabella Nagano called Red Alarm's stereoscopic visuals "amazing", and Sawada Noda recommended the game to all owners of the Virtual Boy. In a more negative review, the publication's Mizu Pin characterized the wire-frame graphics as confusing and frustrating, a criticism echoed by the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly. A GamePro writer under the pseudonym "Slo Mo" found the visuals confusing as well, but felt that players could adjust to them. Slo Mo and Electronic Gaming Monthly's Danyon Carpenter and Al Manuel praised the title's control scheme, and the latter magazine's Andrew Baran summarized Red Alarm as "a nifty show-off game".

The reviewer for Next Generation saw significant promise in Red Alarm, and believed that its elements should add up to "a fantastic game"; but the writer panned the final product as a wasted opportunity. Similarly, Danny Wallace of Total! wrote, "On the one hand, it's a pretty impressive 3D spacey shoot-em-up, with a real grip on the Virtual world and all those fancy techniques, and on the other it's an often visually confusing, headache-inducing attempt at being something it's quite obviously not." However, Dave Halverson of DieHard GameFan called Red Alarm "a great shooter" with excellent graphics. Co-reviewer Nicholas Barres hailed it as a "masterpiece", and he considered it to be "the one and only reason to buy a Virtual Boy".