Assault Heroes
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.
