‘Go, my dear slaves; trample and ruin the world, then it will belong to us!’
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (Jan. 24 – Jan. 30, 2023).
At the beginning of the 1990s, Atlus was still going through a period of experimentalism, before focusing on their most successful franchises. Among these titles, there is Somer Assault, a strange platformer concept: the player controls a Slinky, which can fire projectiles, depending on its position – stretched or retracted. This surprising gameplay is supported by a esoteric monster design that prefigures Kazuma Kaneko's work on Shin Megami Tensei (1992) and the subsequent games of the series. Somer Assault thus emerges as a somewhat arcane title, whose genesis or ambitions are difficult to trace, but has a unique status in the PC-Engine catalogue.
The player goes on a crusade against the Sorceress, who has released twelve monsters to conquer the world, each representing one of the zodiac signs. Each level consists of a maze and ends with a boss fight. While Somer Assault's gameplay is interesting, it is still caught between two conflicting philosophies. On the one hand, the title tries to unfold as a puzzle game, with an emphasis on deliberate movement to navigate obstacles; on the other, it seeks to create hurdles by adding enemies for the Splinky to destroy with its projectiles. Torn between these two approaches, the level design never manages to create anything cohesive. The levels are simply labyrinthine and barely feature any interesting ideas involving the Splinky's motion spectrum – perhaps because it would be too difficult given the timer, which in fact should not exist –, and the enemies never constitute a substantial threat, as the player always prevails thanks to the generous power-ups placed in their path. Bosses are also disappointing, as Angel_Arle pointed out, either by being slayable in a mindless rush or because the Splinky's gameplay is not designed to deal with them at all – this is particularly the case with Aquarius, who is moving far too quickly.
The result is a game that has no idea where it is headed. Every good idea is discarded before it is properly implemented, causing monotony to set in quickly. The Pisces level is interesting in that it forces the player to choose the right route to jump from platform to platform, but the difficulty is non-existent: the puzzle has no real reason to exist. More often, the player moves along long linear stretches while shooting, until finding an opening in a wall. It is an empty experience. As if to illustrate the inability to consider the game in more ambitious grounds, the confrontation against the Sorceress is preceded by a boss gauntlet. The issue with this sequence is that it is too cheap an expedient to extend the game's playtime and offers no interesting variation for any boss. Instead of having rooms with different block layouts, which can alter what strategy to use, the gauntlet takes place in empty spaces, hampering the ability to have interesting shooting angles. Perhaps it is the result of my own ineptitude, but the fight against the Sorceress was mostly a matter of doing as much damage as possible by mashing as fast as I could, before my lives – accumulated over the previous twelve levels – reached zero.
Somer Assault is perhaps more interesting in what it foreshadows, at least visually. The various monsters have a very delightful demonic quality to them, and the title seems to be sincere about its use of Babylonian mythology: the choice to write their names in the credits in Boustrophedon is amusing, if a little rogue. The game is an enjoyable curiosity, but fails to rise above that modest status.
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (Jan. 24 – Jan. 30, 2023).
At the beginning of the 1990s, Atlus was still going through a period of experimentalism, before focusing on their most successful franchises. Among these titles, there is Somer Assault, a strange platformer concept: the player controls a Slinky, which can fire projectiles, depending on its position – stretched or retracted. This surprising gameplay is supported by a esoteric monster design that prefigures Kazuma Kaneko's work on Shin Megami Tensei (1992) and the subsequent games of the series. Somer Assault thus emerges as a somewhat arcane title, whose genesis or ambitions are difficult to trace, but has a unique status in the PC-Engine catalogue.
The player goes on a crusade against the Sorceress, who has released twelve monsters to conquer the world, each representing one of the zodiac signs. Each level consists of a maze and ends with a boss fight. While Somer Assault's gameplay is interesting, it is still caught between two conflicting philosophies. On the one hand, the title tries to unfold as a puzzle game, with an emphasis on deliberate movement to navigate obstacles; on the other, it seeks to create hurdles by adding enemies for the Splinky to destroy with its projectiles. Torn between these two approaches, the level design never manages to create anything cohesive. The levels are simply labyrinthine and barely feature any interesting ideas involving the Splinky's motion spectrum – perhaps because it would be too difficult given the timer, which in fact should not exist –, and the enemies never constitute a substantial threat, as the player always prevails thanks to the generous power-ups placed in their path. Bosses are also disappointing, as Angel_Arle pointed out, either by being slayable in a mindless rush or because the Splinky's gameplay is not designed to deal with them at all – this is particularly the case with Aquarius, who is moving far too quickly.
The result is a game that has no idea where it is headed. Every good idea is discarded before it is properly implemented, causing monotony to set in quickly. The Pisces level is interesting in that it forces the player to choose the right route to jump from platform to platform, but the difficulty is non-existent: the puzzle has no real reason to exist. More often, the player moves along long linear stretches while shooting, until finding an opening in a wall. It is an empty experience. As if to illustrate the inability to consider the game in more ambitious grounds, the confrontation against the Sorceress is preceded by a boss gauntlet. The issue with this sequence is that it is too cheap an expedient to extend the game's playtime and offers no interesting variation for any boss. Instead of having rooms with different block layouts, which can alter what strategy to use, the gauntlet takes place in empty spaces, hampering the ability to have interesting shooting angles. Perhaps it is the result of my own ineptitude, but the fight against the Sorceress was mostly a matter of doing as much damage as possible by mashing as fast as I could, before my lives – accumulated over the previous twelve levels – reached zero.
Somer Assault is perhaps more interesting in what it foreshadows, at least visually. The various monsters have a very delightful demonic quality to them, and the title seems to be sincere about its use of Babylonian mythology: the choice to write their names in the credits in Boustrophedon is amusing, if a little rogue. The game is an enjoyable curiosity, but fails to rise above that modest status.