Quick video review: https://youtu.be/tSjEn0WBWyE
I play a lot of these arcade side scrollers, so here’s my quick review for Steel Assault.
Length:
Steel Assault took me just 55 minutes to clear, and that is with numerous attempts on some of the bosses. It is not a long game by any means, which I guess kinda fits the arcade theme. So, don’t go in expecting this big multi-hour thing.
Gameplay:
Control-wise, Steel Assault gives you free movement, an attack button, and a zipline – that’s it. However, it uses these to their absolute max, including things like punches instead of your regular weapon when you’re in close range. These punches in turn charge your special meter, which in turn fuels any upgrade you pick up – such as a small scattershot electricity effect that gives your whip some additional range.
Nothing too complex here, but what is here works well. The combat is responsive, movement is fluid and doesn’t feel stiff like others in this genre, and the only iffy thing there is the zipline. It can be a bit finicky, so expect to spend some time getting used to how it controls.
Level and enemy variety are also solid. I never had that feeling that I was fighting the same thing over and over. If anything, it felt like I was always fighting something new and the game has this really cool trend of throwing this huge enemy at you that LOOKS like a boss, but is actually just some mid-stage thing, leaving the real boss for the end.
And the boss fights are really where the challenge comes into play. On one hand, they have some pretty cool designs, but on the other, this is where that “trial and error” difficulty really shines. The kind of difficulty where you won’t know how to deal with a specific situation until you get hit or die to it.
This can even be seen a bit in the regular gameplay – like enemies spawning right on top of you or placing ranged units just outside of your screen until you’ve already committed to a jump. It can feel a bit cheap at times, but it never got so bad that I felt outright frustrated.
Graphics, Music, Story:
Graphics and music are also fine and there are a number of options you can change to alter how “retro” the game looks, like CRT filters and such. There’s also a bit of a story, but it’s just one of those side things that hardly matters – as expected from an arcade title.
Overall:
All that said, yeah, it’s fun enough to warrant a recommendation. I don’t know about full price, but if you can catch it on deep sale or even in a bundle – it’s at least worth the time.
I play a lot of these arcade side scrollers, so here’s my quick review for Steel Assault.
Length:
Steel Assault took me just 55 minutes to clear, and that is with numerous attempts on some of the bosses. It is not a long game by any means, which I guess kinda fits the arcade theme. So, don’t go in expecting this big multi-hour thing.
Gameplay:
Control-wise, Steel Assault gives you free movement, an attack button, and a zipline – that’s it. However, it uses these to their absolute max, including things like punches instead of your regular weapon when you’re in close range. These punches in turn charge your special meter, which in turn fuels any upgrade you pick up – such as a small scattershot electricity effect that gives your whip some additional range.
Nothing too complex here, but what is here works well. The combat is responsive, movement is fluid and doesn’t feel stiff like others in this genre, and the only iffy thing there is the zipline. It can be a bit finicky, so expect to spend some time getting used to how it controls.
Level and enemy variety are also solid. I never had that feeling that I was fighting the same thing over and over. If anything, it felt like I was always fighting something new and the game has this really cool trend of throwing this huge enemy at you that LOOKS like a boss, but is actually just some mid-stage thing, leaving the real boss for the end.
And the boss fights are really where the challenge comes into play. On one hand, they have some pretty cool designs, but on the other, this is where that “trial and error” difficulty really shines. The kind of difficulty where you won’t know how to deal with a specific situation until you get hit or die to it.
This can even be seen a bit in the regular gameplay – like enemies spawning right on top of you or placing ranged units just outside of your screen until you’ve already committed to a jump. It can feel a bit cheap at times, but it never got so bad that I felt outright frustrated.
Graphics, Music, Story:
Graphics and music are also fine and there are a number of options you can change to alter how “retro” the game looks, like CRT filters and such. There’s also a bit of a story, but it’s just one of those side things that hardly matters – as expected from an arcade title.
Overall:
All that said, yeah, it’s fun enough to warrant a recommendation. I don’t know about full price, but if you can catch it on deep sale or even in a bundle – it’s at least worth the time.
You can blast through this in under an hour on normal difficulty and have a damn good time seeing the setpieces and listening to the amazing soundtrack, with very little resistance.
Stick it on expert difficulty and it will absolutely spank you, forcing an intensely different approach to the action which is satisfying in a completely different way.
If you're not fussed about an expert skill playthrough, maybe reconsider - my normal mode playthrough was about 35 minutes but I immediately wanted more. Also you can finish Contra 3 in under an hour and that game is a banger.
Stick it on expert difficulty and it will absolutely spank you, forcing an intensely different approach to the action which is satisfying in a completely different way.
If you're not fussed about an expert skill playthrough, maybe reconsider - my normal mode playthrough was about 35 minutes but I immediately wanted more. Also you can finish Contra 3 in under an hour and that game is a banger.
Steel Assault's biggest crime is being too short. What's actually there is brilliant, but it sorta blows its load before one feels satisfied. In other words, it's a very sweet experience, but it lacks nuance.
I think the issue could have been solved had it had 2 more chapters at least, cuz as it currently stands, the narrative's very underwhelming. The climax doesn't feel too impactful because it's not built up to effectively. Of course, the game's arcadey nature doesn't call for an epic narrative, but the issue affects gameplay too. All the game's mechanics are beautiful, but some feel underutilized. The tone of the action doesn't shift enough as things go on.
Compare Steel Assault to Alien Soldier (a game it CERTAINLY drew a lot from). In AS, my boy Epsilon Eagle gets a million things done and goes from here to there, gameplay constantly shifting while keeping all core mechanics intact, all in a similar completion length. In contrast, Steel Assault doesn't seem to have the confidence to experiment with the mechanical complexity it already has. Now, it's unfair to ask it to stack up to mf Alien Soldier, but if it had to be such a short experience, it would have been good to make the most of it.
Anyway, I don'y wanna be too negative. The game's a total blast and any 2D action fan would do good to check it out. Normal mode's a push over, so Expert mode's where it's at.
I think the issue could have been solved had it had 2 more chapters at least, cuz as it currently stands, the narrative's very underwhelming. The climax doesn't feel too impactful because it's not built up to effectively. Of course, the game's arcadey nature doesn't call for an epic narrative, but the issue affects gameplay too. All the game's mechanics are beautiful, but some feel underutilized. The tone of the action doesn't shift enough as things go on.
Compare Steel Assault to Alien Soldier (a game it CERTAINLY drew a lot from). In AS, my boy Epsilon Eagle gets a million things done and goes from here to there, gameplay constantly shifting while keeping all core mechanics intact, all in a similar completion length. In contrast, Steel Assault doesn't seem to have the confidence to experiment with the mechanical complexity it already has. Now, it's unfair to ask it to stack up to mf Alien Soldier, but if it had to be such a short experience, it would have been good to make the most of it.
Anyway, I don'y wanna be too negative. The game's a total blast and any 2D action fan would do good to check it out. Normal mode's a push over, so Expert mode's where it's at.
Crispy, fun action game with some gorgeous pixel art and what I'm sure is a ton of replayability (between expert mode and the arcade mode, which I'm assuming is limited continues).
I'm incredibly surprised that this is the dev studio's first game together. It plays buttery smooth on the Switch, too, so pick it up on whatever platform means more to you. Be advised, however, that the game's main campaign is staggeringly short - I think I finished it in just under an hour, even retrying multiple times from checkpoints. Even so, I think it's not something you'd want to miss.
I'm incredibly surprised that this is the dev studio's first game together. It plays buttery smooth on the Switch, too, so pick it up on whatever platform means more to you. Be advised, however, that the game's main campaign is staggeringly short - I think I finished it in just under an hour, even retrying multiple times from checkpoints. Even so, I think it's not something you'd want to miss.
A badass arcade action platformer which oozes influence from 90's Konami and Treasure in the best ways. Couple this with some of the best sprite art I've seen in a game from 2021 and a jammin' arranged soundtrack and you think you would have a contender for an all-time great 2D action game, but there are a few shortcomings that restricts Steel Assault to having purely niche appeal.
This is primarily because Steel Assault is completely, unapologetically retro with few of the expansive movement mechanics and quality of life features that most modern platformers have. You can double jump with full midair control during your jumps and you have an i-frame slide on a one second cooldown. but besides that Steel Assault feels very rigid like a classic Castlevania game. I use "rigid" in a purely descriptive sense here because this kind of gameplay is right up my alley - I'm a sucker for platforming which involves weighing up a small amount of committal options for the best outcome, but I understand that it won't be appealing for many other people who like floatier platforming. This is exacerbated by the fact that the game is stuck in 4:3 aspect ratio and can reliably be beaten in a single sitting with the game's 5 chapters taking about 25 minutes of playtime.
When I first saw people complaining that Steel Assault is too short, I was initially eager to dismiss it as whining from people who should just realise that they aren't this game's target audience (the whole appeal of arcade games is that they can be experienced fully in a single sitting and encourage repeat playthroughs through self-imposed challenges), but there is genuinely something to be said for the structure of this game.
It's not so much that Steel Assault is "too short", it's that this game's level design, while perfectly competent leaves something to be desired. Some setpieces and boss fights feel like they're over as soon as they begin and the zipline mechanic, while interesting, isn't really expanded upon past the first couple of chapters. I think adding a couple more platforming setpieces and a couple more boss fights would have done a ton of good for making Steel Assault feel like a more complete experience while still being of a suitable arcade length.
The other aspect is that the developer's clearly didn't consider longevity for the average player. Other arcade/arcade style games like Ikaruga and Zero Ranger have continue limits that increase as you play the game more, to ensure that players will have to spend at least a few hours with the game to credit feed through it. Considering the respect these two games earn even from non-arcade players this approach clearly works. Steel Assault on the other hand has no such feature, on lower difficulties you can retry as many times as you want from frequent checkpoints and I don't think this is a good thing for the game's reception. The developers probably decided that they would rather have people complaining that the game is too short rather than have complaints that the game's too hard but forcing the player to engage with the game and replay stages would have actually helped average players to appreciate the game's design.
Another issue that is less impactful but still worth bringing up is that the difficulty levels feel unbalanced. Normal is too easy/forgiving but expert and arcade mode are an absolute herculean leap in comparison. A middle ground difficulty for properly learning the game would be appreciated.
So yeah despite most of this review being criticism I actually like Steel Assault a lot, once I'm electro-whipping bad dudes while headbanging to the arrange music I can easily forget about the game's problems and just have a good time, but I hope the devs provide patches to address some of the issues that basically doom Steel Assault to having very niche appeal.
This is primarily because Steel Assault is completely, unapologetically retro with few of the expansive movement mechanics and quality of life features that most modern platformers have. You can double jump with full midair control during your jumps and you have an i-frame slide on a one second cooldown. but besides that Steel Assault feels very rigid like a classic Castlevania game. I use "rigid" in a purely descriptive sense here because this kind of gameplay is right up my alley - I'm a sucker for platforming which involves weighing up a small amount of committal options for the best outcome, but I understand that it won't be appealing for many other people who like floatier platforming. This is exacerbated by the fact that the game is stuck in 4:3 aspect ratio and can reliably be beaten in a single sitting with the game's 5 chapters taking about 25 minutes of playtime.
When I first saw people complaining that Steel Assault is too short, I was initially eager to dismiss it as whining from people who should just realise that they aren't this game's target audience (the whole appeal of arcade games is that they can be experienced fully in a single sitting and encourage repeat playthroughs through self-imposed challenges), but there is genuinely something to be said for the structure of this game.
It's not so much that Steel Assault is "too short", it's that this game's level design, while perfectly competent leaves something to be desired. Some setpieces and boss fights feel like they're over as soon as they begin and the zipline mechanic, while interesting, isn't really expanded upon past the first couple of chapters. I think adding a couple more platforming setpieces and a couple more boss fights would have done a ton of good for making Steel Assault feel like a more complete experience while still being of a suitable arcade length.
The other aspect is that the developer's clearly didn't consider longevity for the average player. Other arcade/arcade style games like Ikaruga and Zero Ranger have continue limits that increase as you play the game more, to ensure that players will have to spend at least a few hours with the game to credit feed through it. Considering the respect these two games earn even from non-arcade players this approach clearly works. Steel Assault on the other hand has no such feature, on lower difficulties you can retry as many times as you want from frequent checkpoints and I don't think this is a good thing for the game's reception. The developers probably decided that they would rather have people complaining that the game is too short rather than have complaints that the game's too hard but forcing the player to engage with the game and replay stages would have actually helped average players to appreciate the game's design.
Another issue that is less impactful but still worth bringing up is that the difficulty levels feel unbalanced. Normal is too easy/forgiving but expert and arcade mode are an absolute herculean leap in comparison. A middle ground difficulty for properly learning the game would be appreciated.
So yeah despite most of this review being criticism I actually like Steel Assault a lot, once I'm electro-whipping bad dudes while headbanging to the arrange music I can easily forget about the game's problems and just have a good time, but I hope the devs provide patches to address some of the issues that basically doom Steel Assault to having very niche appeal.