It has a nice variety in levels which are tied to the story, but the clunky controls mixed with the difficulty make it a frustrating experience half the time. Visuals and sound design are also pretty middling here.
for those who have interest, check out the romhack Assault Suit Leynos - Reloaded
it is a improved version that includes : All weapons have been renamed.
the light and heavy machine gun have infinite ammo and don’t need to reload.
all weapons have increased ammunition.
The Basic weapons upgrades have more ammunition and are stronger that the regular ones.
infinite continues.
it essentially modernizes this classic (i would use it just for the infinite continues, because being sent to the title screen without saving just because you died 5 times is ridiculous).
i expected just a fun little pew pew old mech game with zero story, what i got was a tale of anger, betrayal and revenge that will make me remember this game for a while.
side note : props for America for always butchering japanese box arts, i mean COME ON ! this time its just ridiculous, the japanese box art is much much cooler , this bothers me because us south americans always get the altered box art when the game got ported to here, thankfully this is a practice long gone and dead, but i still wanna meet the degenerade who kept pushing it up
it is a improved version that includes : All weapons have been renamed.
the light and heavy machine gun have infinite ammo and don’t need to reload.
all weapons have increased ammunition.
The Basic weapons upgrades have more ammunition and are stronger that the regular ones.
infinite continues.
it essentially modernizes this classic (i would use it just for the infinite continues, because being sent to the title screen without saving just because you died 5 times is ridiculous).
i expected just a fun little pew pew old mech game with zero story, what i got was a tale of anger, betrayal and revenge that will make me remember this game for a while.
side note : props for America for always butchering japanese box arts, i mean COME ON ! this time its just ridiculous, the japanese box art is much much cooler , this bothers me because us south americans always get the altered box art when the game got ported to here, thankfully this is a practice long gone and dead, but i still wanna meet the degenerade who kept pushing it up
It's unfortunate that Assault Suit Leynos was destined to be a forgotten gem. The nigh impossible difficulty hangs above what is an innovative side-scrolling shooter full of unique weapon loadouts, alongside cohesive level and story progression which have a modern feel that only enriches the experience. The levels are full of life—both friendly and enemy troops run onto the battlefield trading shots with one another while you rush towards your mission goal, trying not to get overwhelmed by enemy forces. There are some real stand-out set pieces that you wouldn't really expect to see in such an old title too; one level starts you off in space leading you to sneak into a space-colony, taking the fight into the streets only to bust out and immediately face off against a fleeing carrier. The only sections that fell flat are the few sections where you run through dull labyrinthian bases. It's honestly impressive how well Assault Suit Leynos manages to simulate a battlefield in a 2D space, so if you're willing to look past the bullshit coin-eating difficulty I think you'll find a lot to love.
I really like how your performance in each stage unlocks new weapons for your mech, and the loadout customization is surprisingly in depth, but other than that it's not that good. Your mech feels really floaty, but the controls don't have the weight or precision that they do in Valken. A lot of the weapons are just kind of bad. There's a good variety to the stages and objectives, but the way that the game just throws enemies at you is pretty annoying. There was clearly a lot of passion put into the game, but as far as 16 bit platformers or even 16 bit mech games go, there are much better options.
I will say that even though I liked the soundtrack, muting the game and playing Ai Senshi on loop really elevated the experience into the knockoff Gundam game it was always meant to be. Truly the way any mech action game is meant to be played.
I will say that even though I liked the soundtrack, muting the game and playing Ai Senshi on loop really elevated the experience into the knockoff Gundam game it was always meant to be. Truly the way any mech action game is meant to be played.
If you've followed my genesis shenanigans for my 2 years on backloggd you probably know i'm an asshole about how playing on consoles and crt's is The Real Deal and the reason retro games are perceived as overly-cheap is because of input lag and pixelization fucking up periphery vision. It stands to reason that games made for a different time for wildly different hardware are a lot worse when you take them out of that environment - it's an art medium where tech dictates every facet of design, even today. Most retro games, especially 8 and 16 bit, just have to be played in their original format.
But.
Some retro games are Not Like That! Target Earth is just fiendishly evil no matter what way you play it! So bad that for once in this MD marathon, I gave up and moved to an emulator! I even gasp Broke The Gamer Code and used the evil save states, and it was still a total nightmare!
And it's a shame, because TE is one of those games that under any other circumstance, should be this really cool hidden gem - the concept is miles ahead their budget, aiming for a gameplay/storytelling knot with stages that have varying objectives, time-sensitive events and whatnot. The feeling of commandeering this weighty machine with customizable loadouts through a living, breathing war is COOL, bottom line. It's campy, it has really bombastic music (Jenny and Nightblade said it was bad but they are Wrong and Silly), you even have a Vergil rival named Rance that shits himself whenever you hit him with a missile - it is fun. It's understandable why this game has a JP cult following and how it got not one, but two sequels and a remake across other platforms. It is a cool, quirky kusoge with a lofty spirit.
But goddamn, when every single enemy is shooting aimed bullets and you have no i-frames, it's so bad. No amount of 'taking it slow' prepares you for enemies that spawn in clusters, sit on top of your hitbox invincibily, and frame 1 murder you. Whenever you think the game reaches its peak bullshit, it doubles down and crunches your breathing room further. Somebody desperately needs to make a patch for this that adds in i-frames, and I could guarantee this would be so much more palatable.
I'm at least glad the remake exists - my review of that doesn't say anything about it, but like, the remake is a totally different beast and genuinely great. It has revised mission objectives, dozens of changes to the combat design, a total overhaul of your mech's controls and abilities, and is at least five times easier. If you're a fan of games like Ranger-X that bring the heavy, systematic action of mecha into the run-and-gun genre, you absolutely need to check it out.
But don't play Target Earth!
But.
Some retro games are Not Like That! Target Earth is just fiendishly evil no matter what way you play it! So bad that for once in this MD marathon, I gave up and moved to an emulator! I even gasp Broke The Gamer Code and used the evil save states, and it was still a total nightmare!
And it's a shame, because TE is one of those games that under any other circumstance, should be this really cool hidden gem - the concept is miles ahead their budget, aiming for a gameplay/storytelling knot with stages that have varying objectives, time-sensitive events and whatnot. The feeling of commandeering this weighty machine with customizable loadouts through a living, breathing war is COOL, bottom line. It's campy, it has really bombastic music (Jenny and Nightblade said it was bad but they are Wrong and Silly), you even have a Vergil rival named Rance that shits himself whenever you hit him with a missile - it is fun. It's understandable why this game has a JP cult following and how it got not one, but two sequels and a remake across other platforms. It is a cool, quirky kusoge with a lofty spirit.
But goddamn, when every single enemy is shooting aimed bullets and you have no i-frames, it's so bad. No amount of 'taking it slow' prepares you for enemies that spawn in clusters, sit on top of your hitbox invincibily, and frame 1 murder you. Whenever you think the game reaches its peak bullshit, it doubles down and crunches your breathing room further. Somebody desperately needs to make a patch for this that adds in i-frames, and I could guarantee this would be so much more palatable.
I'm at least glad the remake exists - my review of that doesn't say anything about it, but like, the remake is a totally different beast and genuinely great. It has revised mission objectives, dozens of changes to the combat design, a total overhaul of your mech's controls and abilities, and is at least five times easier. If you're a fan of games like Ranger-X that bring the heavy, systematic action of mecha into the run-and-gun genre, you absolutely need to check it out.
But don't play Target Earth!
Pity the difficulty is unbearable since I wanted to like this game so much
Dreamworks was involvedo into this? THAT same Dreamworks? A mediocre side-scrolling platform/shooter.
Cleared on September 4th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 40/160)
This game is much like Contra in some ways, but made more deliberately clunkier as you are controlling a mech in a 2D shooter where you move on foot. Much like those games, you can aim in multiple directions while moving and shooting, but you cannot duck and your jump is not as responsive as well as being quite floaty. As weird as this sounds, I don't have much of a problem with that. I've played much worse when it comes to controls.
Before starting out a mission, you are given the option to equip 6 different items which can include weapons that do all kinds of things like deal single-target damage, spread shot damage, AoE, homing, and piercing among others. You can also equip Armor to increase health and a shield to reduce damage.
Going into this game, I was warned of how brutally difficult it was and at first I thought that it wasn't that hard. I mean, it's not easy or anything. Enemies come at you quite frequently and you have to deal with uneven terrain, but sometimes that can work to your advantage. Granted, I did find that Reactor in Mission 4 to be really obnoxious, but that's about as much as I expected... well, until the final level.
In the final level you acquire flying controls. This isn't the first time this happens since you get this opportunity in Level 3 and 7, but my god, the level just barrages with you with enemies. You can at least have allies to help blast them for damage, but once you get to the enemy side, you better hang on. Once you manage to get to the labyrinth, it is still quite tedious, but the good news is that you have health regeneration, so just show some patience and you'll pull through.
But then, we get to the final boss, and I just want to say, it is easily the 2nd worst Sega Genesis boss I have faced next to the final boss of Wonder Boy in Monster World. The boss has two attacks. An electric chain that circles around and a wave of missiles that fire at your current direction. The problem is that he attacks so fast that you are given little room to avoid his attacks and you just die so quickly. Now if you have the right weapon, you should have an easier time, but if you don't like I did... well, better start save scumming. And somehow, the 2nd phase ends up being super easy because all you have to do is ring around the circles, shoot and you win.
By that point, my head was hurting and I wasn't enjoying the game as much anymore. It was fine for the first couple of levels, but the final level left me exhausted.
This game is much like Contra in some ways, but made more deliberately clunkier as you are controlling a mech in a 2D shooter where you move on foot. Much like those games, you can aim in multiple directions while moving and shooting, but you cannot duck and your jump is not as responsive as well as being quite floaty. As weird as this sounds, I don't have much of a problem with that. I've played much worse when it comes to controls.
Before starting out a mission, you are given the option to equip 6 different items which can include weapons that do all kinds of things like deal single-target damage, spread shot damage, AoE, homing, and piercing among others. You can also equip Armor to increase health and a shield to reduce damage.
Going into this game, I was warned of how brutally difficult it was and at first I thought that it wasn't that hard. I mean, it's not easy or anything. Enemies come at you quite frequently and you have to deal with uneven terrain, but sometimes that can work to your advantage. Granted, I did find that Reactor in Mission 4 to be really obnoxious, but that's about as much as I expected... well, until the final level.
In the final level you acquire flying controls. This isn't the first time this happens since you get this opportunity in Level 3 and 7, but my god, the level just barrages with you with enemies. You can at least have allies to help blast them for damage, but once you get to the enemy side, you better hang on. Once you manage to get to the labyrinth, it is still quite tedious, but the good news is that you have health regeneration, so just show some patience and you'll pull through.
But then, we get to the final boss, and I just want to say, it is easily the 2nd worst Sega Genesis boss I have faced next to the final boss of Wonder Boy in Monster World. The boss has two attacks. An electric chain that circles around and a wave of missiles that fire at your current direction. The problem is that he attacks so fast that you are given little room to avoid his attacks and you just die so quickly. Now if you have the right weapon, you should have an easier time, but if you don't like I did... well, better start save scumming. And somehow, the 2nd phase ends up being super easy because all you have to do is ring around the circles, shoot and you win.
By that point, my head was hurting and I wasn't enjoying the game as much anymore. It was fine for the first couple of levels, but the final level left me exhausted.
This is a little embarrassing, but I got stuck in the weapon screen at the very beginning of the game and I had no idea what to do lmao
Nigh unplayable due to completely ridiculous difficulty antics. There's potential here, but the game is so actively working against you at all times that frankly it’s hard to give any credit. This is due to lack of i-frames, randomly spawned enemies, and lack of any lives or continues without hidden codes. There are patches online to mitigate these issues but I'm not here to rate the patched version.
I found the visuals to be pretty lacking as well, and the most recurring song in the game really blows, so all in all the presentation really is not doing it any favors. I'd be willing to forgive it probably if the game was fun or at least more lenient, but in a state that I already heavily dislike it's just another bullet point to add as a reason.
As far as I know, this isn't even a victim of localization buffs. The original release is just as impossible. I suppose it isn't really surprising that the credits are very short and don't list any testers at all, but who knows what good that would do anyway.
I found the visuals to be pretty lacking as well, and the most recurring song in the game really blows, so all in all the presentation really is not doing it any favors. I'd be willing to forgive it probably if the game was fun or at least more lenient, but in a state that I already heavily dislike it's just another bullet point to add as a reason.
As far as I know, this isn't even a victim of localization buffs. The original release is just as impossible. I suppose it isn't really surprising that the credits are very short and don't list any testers at all, but who knows what good that would do anyway.
pretty fucking fiendishly difficult even with the continue code (press start on options menu with two lives left) but an addicting and rewarding ride nonetheless!
this isn't metal slug. bullets are hard to dodge, and every enemy poses a legitimate threat - that's where leynos shines as more of a methodical and strategy-driven game than your average run n gun. go in expecting something more along the lines of 2d-armored core and you'll have a much better time
but holy fuck that last stage is aids
this isn't metal slug. bullets are hard to dodge, and every enemy poses a legitimate threat - that's where leynos shines as more of a methodical and strategy-driven game than your average run n gun. go in expecting something more along the lines of 2d-armored core and you'll have a much better time
but holy fuck that last stage is aids