In a nutshell, why play Smash TV when you can play this? This is the first thing that came to mind when I played this. Smash TV is a classic and all, but I can’t help but think how many people would rather jump into an old game that they know, when for an extra 400 pts they can play the newer improved version. Assault Heroes is not a game you play for the storyline, you play it because you are blowing up all and sundry because uhh.. who cares, it’s fun and it has great co-op play.
The game is mostly played in vehicle mode and has 3 weapons. Flamethrower, Missiles, Machine Gun. Each is upgradable twice and each has a specific use. You can also get a homing missile upgrade, but you won’t be running around as a walking cannon of death i.e. R-Type japanese shooter style. Rather you’ll be switching between weapons as each are defined for a specific purpose. Personally I find this sort of gameplay more interesting. Flamethrower is for infantry and swarming weak targets, the machine gun is a general purpose rapid fire weapon, weak but ideal for long range and light vehicle targets and the missiles are for armored targets. The only weak spot in the game, if you can call it that is that the missiles are supposed to be slow but they aren’t *that* slow and you can get through 90% of the game only using this weapon even though it’s not as safe or efficient as switching out.
This game also believes in the big boss fights which Smash TV lacks and you can see an example above. One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that when your vehicle gets blown up, you’re not dead yet. You get to run around as a human and can still throw grenades and nukes. Your basic firepower has reduced damage and range and you can die in one hit unlike being in vehicle. However there are shots that reduce you to no health instantly in vehicle form too so the result is, being a human vs a vehicle is actually not that much of an advantage and you can get out of the vehicle at any time and to pick up a powerup or fight. It’s your choice. There are also bonus levels that literally drop you into a Smash TV style dungeon and you’ll be fighting it out with only one death allowed before you get portalled out. These areas act more as bonus levels than a core part of the game experience but nonetheless it’s nice to see homage paid to it’s inspiration.
Overall this is a great game which the demo makes seem more boring than it actually is. It may feel a little slow paced initially because you can never outpace the rate the screen automatically scrolls but as time goes on, you’ll not care. Things get more than hectic enough where you’ll wish it was slower. The game is a bit on the easy side but there are enough levels to make the experience feel meaty, yet not overwhelming where you won’t want to play it again. It’s the perfect game to come back to again and again and master all the levels (including the bonus ones) thanks to the level select on the menu (which I wish more games had). This is probably the second game you should show a traditional “core gamer” after Small Arms.
Essentially this is the XBox answer to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros and it’s not half bad. If you only own an XBox and no Nintendo system whatsoever and like playing Smash Bros, this is your game. Small Arms is Smash Bros with guns, except a little less polished. I could describe the game but there’s a youtube video that does it better.
This is a very cool game that any FPS “Hardcore gamer” should check out. However it isn’t without it’s flaws, right from the beginning you get a pretty cool critter (the art quality is up there with Conker) running along with a big gun and jumping with matrix esque camera moves (without the bullet time) and you think “Wow, this could be something special” and it almost is. *Almost*.
Problems – The single player is very unpolished and looks like it was thrown in as an afterthought. Its essentially one match after another with more opponents being thrown in afterwards. Some trash talking story mode stuff between characters could have made this a little more special. The level design also leaves something to be desired, there are some levels that play extremely well and others like the train level that are just frustrating with characters ending up off screen unable to recover. The AI is also really.. random. It’s hard to put one’s finger on it, but it’s just not any fun to fight against. Basically for me, I have a strong bias towards single player and story based games, if the game grabs me in single player i.e. Outpost Kaloki, you can pretty much guarantee I’ll buy it. This is the only thing that stopped me from actually splashing out 800 pts. The characters are also pretty random, there is no consitent universe for them to all exist in, it’s just a random grab bag and you won’t really care for them outside of their looks.
However this game more than makes up for the rest in multiplayer (up to 4 players on the one local machine too is a plus). This is where the game shines. It is just as good as Smash Bros, you might think that everyone having guns would make things pretty stupid but the ranged combat is balanced out by weapons depleting quickly and the game being more focused on constantly replenishing your weapons or ammo and keeps everyone moving. The game works a lot better with human flaws to contend with vs AI i.e. the AI is very perfect in that it never falls down the holes for example. The problem with multiplayer is that essentially the four characters you get in the demo are more than enough, and the extra characters are never really fleshed out enough for you to want more than the demo characters, their uniqueness wears off once you start running around picking up other weapons anyway.
Bottom line is that this is a really fun game that you can do with only having just the demo. That’s also it’s greatest weakness in that there’s no reason to actually buy for anything other than online play, and a game like Smash Bros works best when everyone’s in the same room at the same time. It’s so close to being a classic that I can’t help maybe it was the 50 meg limit that did them in, or they just ran out of time. With a bit more polish this could have been a must buy as the production value is definitely there. However, if I ever get a free 800 pts anywhere, this one’s first on my list to unlock.
