It works incredibly well throughout the game, and it is an essential piece of equipment, especially among certain boss fights.Īside from the zipline, the rest of Steel Assault is pretty standard. Essentially, Taro can blast a modified grappling hook both directions to create a zipline wire, and he can create this line vertically, horizontally, and even diagonally to create access to higher areas and even use the line to help jump higher. Grappling hooks have been in gaming for a very long time, but this is the first time I have played a game with a portable zipline. One thing that the game brings to the table that is new is the zipline mechanic. Steel Assault is uniquely its own while also paying its respects to those that came before it. There are moments that pay homage to Contra, others that do so for Bionic Commando, and even little parts to Mega Man X, and yet at no point in the game does it feel like something else. It may not be the best story, by any stretch, but Steel Assault does a great job of making us want to take Pierce down, no matter what.Īs far as the gameplay goes, Steel Assault is a lovely mix of different side-scrolling action titles from the NES and SNES days. The fluid animation mixed with all of the fantastically designed enemies and bosses only elevates this experience even more. It is good fun, and the wonderful 16-bit graphics look amazing. Taro is his kryptonite, so Pierce is simply using all of these enemies as pawns to delay Taro from interfering. The characters and bosses are genuinely fun, and the overall feel of Steel Assault is that of an 80s action film, where the final boss doesn’t care about his minions at all and is only looking out ultimately for himself. In classic 16-bit action, Steel Assault not only has the simplest narrative, but dialog is subject to short, aggressive sentences in fuzzy lettering displayed in a perfectly accurate animated text box. While in terms of raw content the game technically isn’t a very long one, getting to the point where you’ve got the skill and experience to be able to blow through it all will take some time, making this a great challenge for classic arcade fans.You play as Taro Takahashi, a resistance soldier on a revenge mission against a dictator named Pierce who lords over the ashes. I think the challenge is also exacerbated a little by checkpoints that sometimes feel a little spread out, though conceptually they usually make sense and some areas are simply bigger and tougher than others. You can expect to crash and burn quite a bit, with the expectation being that you’re really on top of how best to use your grapple quickly and effectively even while under fire, and that can sometimes require some diligence to get through tough spots. That’s not to say that, by any means, it’ll be an easy run. Giving the game a feeling that sits somewhere between a classic shooter like Contra and the beloved Bionic Commando, there’s just something refreshing about the flow of this game that’s very satisfying. What’s great is that sometimes just small things can really make a difference and the grapple in Steel Assault quickly became the star of the show for me. Run-and-gun shooters were absolutely a consistent staple in the arcades and on consoles back in the day, and that puts a certain amount of Run-and-gun shooters were absolutely a consistent staple in the arcades and on consoles back in the day, and that puts a certain amount of pressure on developers in the current day to do anything that feels new and exciting.
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