izigame.me

Steel Assault is a unique take on the side-scrolling, action-platformer genre. Zenovia Interactive set out to make a fun, fast-paced, arcade-style game inspired by similar games like Castlevania, Contra, Bionic Commando, Mega Man X and Metal Slug and overall succeeded in their first attempt at the genre. The game isn’t perfect and can be quite challenging to new players even on an easier difficulty. It is also lacking in terms of length and story, but fast-paced gameplay, amazing soundtrack and phenomenal pixel artistry make the game an enjoyable experience for both newcomers (on lower difficulties) and fans of the action-platforming genre.
Overview and Gameplay
Players traverse through 5 different stages while fighting a boss at the end of each stage with gradual difficulty. There are 4 levels of difficulty to select between very easy to expert along with an “Arcade Mode” which is expert mode without the use of continues. The differences between the modes have nothing to do with level, enemy or boss design and are limited to Taro’s stats:
Very Easy: Taro’s health bar is doubled, receives a single unit of damage per hit, enemies occasionally drop health and health is restored when starting a new area or stage.
Easy: Taro has 1 health bar, receives a single unit of damage per hit, enemies will occasionally drop health and health is restored when starting a new area or stage.
Normal: Taro has 1 health bar, receives 2 units of damage per hit, enemies won’t drop health, but health is restored when starting a new area or stage.
Expert: Taro has 1 health bar, receives 2 units of damage per hit, enemies won’t drop health and all damage taken is carried over when starting a new area or stage.
This game can be difficult and is one of those “easy to learn, hard to master” games. Newcomers should start with “very easy” (easy mode of the game) as it is a great introduction to the game’s mechanics. As the player progresses through harder difficulties (easy being normal and normal being hard), the game forces the player to adapt a stricter strategy to overcome the various obstacles especially on normal and expert where health conservation becomes critical.
Pros
Here are the pros of Steel Assault:
Gameplay, Level Design and Mechanics – This game has great level design with excellent platforming sections that require the player to creatively use the zipline mechanic, a good amount of enemy variety, smooth controls and fun gimmicks that provide a progressive difficulty that while challenging isn’t unfair. In addition, these have been designed so that it allows the player to instinctively utilize what is taught in the tutorial to overcome each obstacle without holding the player’s hand. Even though there are only 5 levels, all of them are unique and offer fun nods to other games (examples include: a turret section inspired by Contra, bosses are a nod to Mega Man X, whip is a nod to Castlevania and Taro’s movement feels similar to Metal Slug) while still providing players with a fresh take on the genre.
Fantastic Boss Fights – Along with excellent level design, the game really shines with its boss fights. Each boss has their own unique pattern and combined with an epic score are all great. The only downside to them is that their fights are short and they use the same attacks on all difficulties rather than having a varied move-set.
General Artistry – Graphically and musically, Steel Assault is an amazing experience and Zenovia hit it out of the ball park when it came to the visuals and score. The beautiful pixel art combined with a fast-paced, heart-pumping soundtrack, created the perfect feel for a classic, side-scrolling, arcade game.
Cons
While Steel Assault is a fun game, it is not without its faults:
Gameplay and Length – Players will be thrown off by how short the levels are. Just as players are getting into the feel for a stage, it just suddenly ends with a quick boss fight. As a result, this doesn’t give the player enough time to get accustomed to core mechanics due to how frequently it fluctuates between sections. I understand why they did this since arcade mode is already an endurance test on its own, but it still doesn’t make it a good thing. The entire game can easily be beaten within 30 minutes and by the end of the game, I definitely felt like I wanted to experience more as Zenovia is very competent with their level design.
Difficulty – There is a right way to design difficulty in a game and a wrong way to do it. As mentioned above, the levels themselves are the same on all difficulties and the only thing that changes are Taro’s stats between each difficulty. This doesn’t encourage the player to utilize different tactics within the levels themselves, rather it forces them to adopt a specific strategy to conserve health to make it all the way through the game on higher difficulties. On top of this, the game actively punishes the player by forcing repetition of multiple sections of a stage (or an entire stage) all over again making this a tedious chore to complete (made even worse with Arcade mode since there are no continues). Not only is this not welcoming for new players, but to get all the achievements, the player has to be flawless at the game. Repetition should never be the reason why a game’s length is stretched out as it quickly overstays its welcome and becomes frustrating to play. The game’s difficulty should be based on the level design itself, not what affects the player’s stats.
Failed Story Implementation – As per the official website, Steel Assault takes place in the late 2030s during the Second Pacific War where radiological warfare saw the debut of the thorium bomb: a radiation bomb that while it caused no visible destruction, left entire cities uninhabitable. This allowed robotic units to pick off resources and humans either died off or fled. The main antagonist of the game, Magnus Von Pierce, an inventor turned army general, rose from the ashes as a dictator of a post-apocalyptic America. Magnus began a regime to kill off all real and suspected enemies including the main protagonist, Taro Takahashi’s parents. Taro becomes a member of the Daybreak Resistance movement and by early 2046 just as Pierce is deploying old nuclear, military and robotic tech, Taro embarks on a mission to investigate the cities they now occupy and to get his own personal revenge on the man that killed his parents.
Stories like this, while cliché, are a great addition to side-scroller platformers and compliment the adventure. Steel Assault, however, really doesn’t explain any of this in the entirety of the game and all it amounts to is the player taking control of Taro to defeat Magnus. Having a background story properly implemented creates the world. While it isn’t necessary for games like these and this is just a minor nitpick, it’s something that would’ve been nice to have properly implemented to pad out the game’s length and make the game’s characters and gameplay feel more memorable instead of having a game whose length is built on repetition.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Zenovia Interactive did an amazing job for their first attempt in the side-scrolling, action-platforming genre. From smooth gameplay to great level designs complimented perfectly with an amazing soundtrack and beautiful pixel art, Steel Assault is an overall enjoyable game for fans of the genre who will enjoy the call-backs to other famous games while experiencing a unique take on a classic formula. The only real downsides to this game are that this game is incredibly short and the length is padded by repetition on harder difficulties which can make the game tedious and frustrating. This game is challenging, but it isn’t unfair and it still is a great game to get if it goes on sale.
After everything, I give Steel Assault a rating of 7/10.