Support NeoGAF

[SF Kosmo]

Steel Assault is a retro-indie style action side-scroller in the vein of games like Shatterhand, Ninja Gaiden, and the games of Treasure. It has been in development for a very long time, since at least 2014. Initially conceived as a strictly 8-bit NES-style homage to Shatterhand, it was gradually expanded and reworked into the loose 16-bit retro style game you see today. The art from the original incarnation was given to another team and eventually turned into the recently released Cyber Shadow.

Now, 6 years after its Kickstarter debut, a demo containing the first level (up to, but not including the boss), is live on Steam.

Steel Assault is hard. Really hard. It's not cheap, you always know what hit you, but it throws a lot your way and it's easy to get overwhelmed. The demo contains two difficulties, Normal, which is pretty challenging, and Arcade which is merciless.

But not impossible.

 

[CamHostage]

Launches Sept 28 on PC and now also Switch.

New trailer:

 

[SF Kosmo]

Out today! This game has been in development for over six years, and it's changed a lot in that time, but the finished product is pretty awesome. 100% old school, hard as nails (though it has difficult settings) and fun as hell. It has both 8 and 16-bit sensibilities, feeling a bit like if Treasure made a sequel to Shatterhand.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Colors look good, but it's pixel art.

They should have followed Streets of Rage 4 steps.

Not everyone has a Ben Fiquet lying around. Most games that go that route do not look that good.

But the pixel art here is really excellent. It doesn't quite feel like SNES or Genesis or any real system, it sort of has its own look, but it does have a cohesive style to it.

 

[Bonfires Down]

Colors look good, but it's pixel art.

They should have followed Streets of Rage 4 steps.

Nope.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Well, i'd argue that if they can make pixel art look good, they can make high resolution art look good too.

Maybe it's because animations take more time to produce though.

It's kind of like saying if you can if you can do an impressionist painting you can do photorealism. They're different styles. It isn't just pixel art but higher res, which is why when you see people try to up res pixel art it usually looks way different. I don't think modern art would have been as evocative of the retro sensibilities this game is going for.

But yes, this is a very indie game, developed on a Kickstarter that raised $8,000, and only attracted a publisher in the last year or so. Originally it was done in a rigid NES style but they ended up redoing the whole game and making it look a lot nicer. They also did an asset flip of the original art which became the recent Cyber Shadow.

 

[22•22]

Looks great and fun

 

[ManaByte]

It's nice to see indie devs have grown beyond trying to emulate the look of NES games and have moved up to SNES. I was getting sick of every indie game looking like a NES game.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Actually, yes.
Any educated artist would be able to do so. It's not like artists stick to a single style and never try do attempt anything else.


Exactly because pixel art is suited for smaller CRT screens, with very low resolution.
With higher resolution screens, there really is no point anymore


"Retro" is just an excuse to cheapen development and rip off old games wihout remorse.
If developers want to go truly "retro", just follow Cuphead's steps.

I disagree. I think it's a style as much as any other, it looks different, it evokes a different feeling. It's not just a worse version of the same thing. The game would look radically different in HD.

It's like making a stop motion film versus a CGI film. Yes it's lower tech but that doesn't mean ever stop motion film ought to just be CGI.

 

[Holammer]

The game only costs 12,99€ with a 10% launch discount. I already enjoyed the demo so I grabbed it immediately.
There's a lot to like here, It feels like an authentic Irem or SNK arcade with 90's style pixel art and gameplay. They even went with a 4:3 aspect ratio to emulate the look and there is a surprisingly well made CRT filter, but there's a real lost opportunity by not using 11kHz sampled speech to complete the illusion.

The difficulty is rough, in fact, it would have been uncomfortably difficult as a real arcade machine, a real coin-muncher. Bosses do become manageable once you figure out the pattern.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[SF Kosmo]

The game only costs 12,99€ with a 10% launch discount. I already enjoyed the demo so I grabbed it immediately.
There's a lot to like here, It feels like an authentic Irem or SNK arcade with 90's style pixel art and gameplay. They even went with a 4:3 aspect ratio to emulate the look and there is a surprisingly well made CRT filter, but there's a real lost opportunity by not using 11kHz sampled speech to complete the illusion.

The difficulty is rough, in fact, it would have been uncomfortably difficult as a real arcade machine, a real coin-muncher. Bosses do become manageable once you figure out the pattern.

Yeah this game is tough as balls, and it does take a bit if trial and error and pattern memorization to get through it. There are some patterns that are tough to figure out on a first try, especially those where you need a well timed dash for the invulnerability.

That said it's definitely manageable, but I would probably cut your teeth on normal before attempting arcade.

 

[22•22]

SlimeGooGoo

I like my pixels so suck it

And yes I know what CRT does to pixels



Btw any chances for a ps4 release down the line?

 

[STARSBarry]

Colors look good, but it's pixel art.

They should have followed Streets of Rage 4 steps.

And here's me thinking streets of rage 4 looked generic and bland because it didn't use high quality pixel art and instead looked close to a flash game. The more you know.

 

[Punished Miku]

Got it on Switch. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[22•22]

And here's me thinking streets of rage 4 looked generic and bland because it didn't use high quality pixel art and instead looked close to a flash game. The more you know.

My sentiments exactly

 

[SF Kosmo]

Got it on Switch. Thanks for the heads up.

Game is rough on that fucking Switch D-pad, I had to bust out the 8bitdo M30

 

[Punished Miku]

Game is rough on that fucking Switch D-pad, I had to bust out the 8bitdo M30

I'll be using the pro controller mostly, which has been fine for everything I've played. Hopefully I'm not doing a bunch of Street Fighter moves, because otherwise it should be okay for me.

 

[Strider Highwind]

I was gonna make a launch trailer, but ill just post in this one.

I grabbed it on Steam this morning, gonna play in like 20 mins. Its way tooooo many games to play right now, but im hyped cause this looks like Megaman X and Super Turican had a baby lol

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Shouldn't the release have its own thread? The demo isn't available anymore on steam.

 

[Pejo]

Oh man, this looks cool. Not sure I have the chops anymore for ultra hard arcade platformers but I'm damn sure going to find out.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Check out the first 9 minutes of Steel Assault gameplay, captured on PC. Steel Assault is a modern take on the classic 2D sidescrolling genre, featuring fast paced action, and a unique zipline mechanic that allows its main character, Taro Takahashi, to create a rope bridge between two points in order to create a safe place to hide from bullets, or create an opportunity to attack hard to reach enemies.

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

Beat the game yesterday in about 40 min. Very nice title. I would say that this is more like a Sega Saturn game than a 16 bits one... There is no way the SNES or the Genesis would be able to recreate those graphics lol.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Beat the game yesterday in about 40 min. Very nice title. I would say that this is more like a Sega Saturn game than a 16 bits one... There is no way the SNES or the Genesis would be able to recreate those graphics lol.

Yeah it's pretty short if you play on the easier difficulties. I think it'll be a long time before I can beat arcade mode.