Arcade Archives: Assault (PlayStation 4|5 - Switch)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Arcade Archives: Assault (PlayStation 4|5 - Switch)

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DANGER ZONE (PART XIII)
FULL SCALE ASSAULT


Namco hits the Arcade Archives this time with an unexpected release.
The reason to lay down the cash? The amazing tank-shmup Assault.



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Just shut up and let the tank's weapons do the talk.

Assault is a tank shooter that takes the overall concepts of gaming to new levels. To begin with, the plot breaks with the monotony of saving humanity and Earth. Here, you have to destroy them as the player takes the place of an alien native who is against the human invasion to reclaim his planet's freedom. Literally, you're gonna tell humans "Go back to Earth" using their own weaponry against them, and the High-Manuever Battle Tank is the weapon you've taken over for this mission. Now, let's talk about controls. Aside from the traditional Start button, the first thing you'll notice here is the lack of the basic control stick and the traditional buttons to perform the common actions. Instead you're given two control sticks with triggers and (if you're playing on a cabinet) small instructions printed on the cabinet between them. Forget the classic arcade controls today, dude 'cos we're playing with "house rules" this time and you've better learn how to control the High-Manuever Battle Tank. To move forward you have to move BOTH sticks up, and move both down to go backwards. If you're thinking moving left or right just needs one of the sticks, think again. To turn left you have to push down on the the left stick and up on the right one and to make a right turn is left stick up and right down. One innovation from this game is the HMBT's ability to roll and keep firing like normal. This move is called "Rapid Roll" and is very useful to avoid enemy fire. To do a Rapid Roll you have to press either left or right on both control sticks to roll on the desired direction.



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Loud and blinding enough tank action to psych out the entire 'hood.

Among your tank controls you have one spectacular weapon: The Grenade. This one is fired by performing the Power Wheelie. By moving the left stick to the left and the right stick to the right, your tank will go up and a sight will appear. Learning and mastering this move is A REQUIREMENT in this game, and what a requirement turns out to be as the Grenade causes great damages to the enemies at distance and on the blast radius of the explosion, taking 3 or more tanks with it, becoming a very useful weapon which can also take aerial enemies like the big hovercraft from Stage 4, but to take it down you need really fast reflexes and mastery of the tank control. This weapon becomes extremely useful since the game doesn't give you power ups for your regular shots, leaving you with a standard shot capable of firing three bullets on screen.



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Taking the definition of "Long-Range Firing" to a new height.

While lacking of power ups, the game gives you some in-field advantages. From the traditional natural barriers that allow you to fire your regular grenades at a safe distance and exploiting the blast radius, to the lethally efficient Lift Zones. Once you're in midair, you can shoot grenades to enemies that once were too far away from your regular weapon range. Keep in mind, you can use a Lift Zone 3 times before its energy is depleted on each use. One final word of advice about these platforms: Don't use them on Stage 5, the enemy will use them as traps to surround you and shot you dead once you're on the ground.

The main objective of the game is the basic "Traverse to point A to B", destroy the main defense line and you can go to the next round. Unlike other ground vehicle shmups that were linear like SNK's T.N.K. III/Iron Tank, Assault is more similar to Konami's Jackal as you have a vast world to explore, but in Assault's case, the world is the one who moves instead of the tank, ¿What do I mean? Your tank always remains on the center as the scenery rotates, scrolls or takes height with the Lift Zones. Also, the layout and overall geography on Assault is more intrincated as we have irregular regions with splitting paths, irregular rock terrains and bushes that will slow your vehicle and even lakes where you'll partially submerge your vehicle. However, the fun part is that you can literally destroy everything in sight: Buildings, stationed vehicles, even small boulders and trees in order to clear your path or just leave a trail of destruction, despite they don't give you points like your enemies. One minor issue with this game is how the game utilizes the timer mechanic. At first it looks like you have all the time in the world to explore and clear all the area if you want to take your time, but all of a sudden the timer goes on-screen at 99 seconds, forcing you to change your game strategy from exploration to fight your way before time hits zero. I guess the game timer can't hold 3 numbers on screen and only displays it when time hits 99. Clearing a mission within the time limits is also a synonym of bonus points that grant you extra tanks, especially since the game is a one-hit wonder where one shot is enough to take down your tank. Fortunately, your enemies doesn't need to take way too much hits to go down. So we can say it might be tough, but completely fair.



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Real Soldiers EARN their right to continue where they left off.

At first the game doesn't seem to have a continue function after losing all your lives implying a die and start all over. But here's a catch: After clearing the first checkpoint of Stage 3, the game will grant you the right to continue the game after entering your name. Looks like you have to be a great player to earn the right to continue your mission after dying.



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Well, that's one hell of a control layout.

You've already know that the game requires both Analog Sticks to emulate the original cabinet controls and its respective commands. The Arcade Archives version emulates that aspect pretty well, but just in case the controls disorientate you and you can't walk the walk on Assault, the game has a "Control B" that puts the rotation and direction in the Left Analog, while the X button is for perform both the Rapid Roll (X and Left/Right) and Power Wheelie (X and Up) making things easier and more similar to the controls of Jackal, and they are carried on the Hi-Score and Caravan Modes which I've explained about them in most of my reviews about this series.
While most Namco games in the Arcade Archives are based on their japanese ROMs (Pac-Man, Pac-Land, Dragon Saber, etc.), Assault is an unique ROM for all the regions. The only difference between the Namco and Atari Games releases was the change from "PLAYER 1UP MISSED" to "YOU WERE HIT." and a couple of physical changes: the Atari Games logo on the cabinet and the english instructions on it.

Namco released an upgrade of this game known as Assault Plus, which the Arcade Archives version omits. But since they've released both Rally-X and the upgraded New Rally-X as individual titles, we can only hope to see Assault Plus sooner or later.



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Even aerial targets will get a blast as long as you make your way out their line of fire.

Visually, the game fully takes the advantages of the (then new) Namco System II board, which featured new graphical effects like in-and-out zooms, scenery rotation and very colorful battlefields with even more technological and geological detailings. Sprites were improved by this new hardware as all the vehicles and buildings featured what is called "Sprite Rotation" allowing the pixel sprites to adapt to the angle they're intended to be while keeping the HMBT in the center of the screen, breaking the boundary of 0°, 45° and 90° position like in Galaga. I can even say the System II board had a graphic performance greater than Sega's System X hardware board and the SNES Mode 7 (F-Zero, Jim Power and Contra III for example).
Namco really pulled an effort on this game by bringing the famous Gundam artist Kunio Ogawara as the designer of all the vehicles and artillery of the game. While the game uses Science-Fiction as the main theme. The design of the tank is very unique as we've got this two-sided tank that changes its color with a flip and is still capable to go like if nothing happened. Although that revolutionary design sacrifies the cannon's vertical aiming, it compensates it with the Power Wheelie move. Another change was the decision of putting the player as the alien native against humanity, that was an unexpected twist in overall videogame premises back then since most of the times you are the human against the alien, and now the tables turn.

Now, let's talk about the music. While the first level lacks of it, the soundtrack plays as soon as you clear the level and the second stage starts. Rather than going hard rocking, Shinji Hosoe gave us a funky, action-thriller like calmed soundtrack that carries the 80's action spirit with it when the suspense required low notes and some percussion. The only complain that I have is that the music stops everytime you die and start again. The game has two Name Entry themes: One for the 1st place and the 2nd and below. The sound effects are also amazing as they aim to realistic combat sounds, especially the grenade firing sound that resembles more of a missile being fired. Only the arrow-compass sound becomes very annoying quickly as you navigate across the combat zone and doesn't let you enjoy the music.

Comparing this port with the Namco Museum release on the PlayStation, the Arcade Archives release is the definitive home version, as the game no longer has the resolution issues from the PS1 port. Hard to believe that a mid-90's console like the PlayStation was unable to fully recreate the arcade graphics since that was a more advanced console than the System II hardware.


Want a playlist for Assault? How 'bout some metal for the moments when you're on the tank destroying things.
Leider - We are Masters
Judas Priest - Firepower
Metallica - The Struggle Within
Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Lamb of God - Black Label
Rob Zombie - Scum of the Earth
P.O.D. - Boom
Sabaton - Panzer Battalion
(or how 'bout 1 hour extended)
Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
AC/DC - This Means War
Allen-Lande - Another Battle


ASSAULTED CURIOSITIES
- The arcade flyers utilized scale models rather than the traditional artwork drawings.
- Assault was the 7th Namco arcade game published by Atari Games.
- Atari changed the plotline in the promotional flyers to the basic "Save the homeland!" and "rid your home planet of the enemy forces that have taken over". This is even carried on the description on Hamster's official site as "Take control of your tank and battle invaders to reclaim your homeland".
- The High-Manuever Battle Tank was renamed as the "Assault Tank".
- The dedicated cabinet for this game is a real favorite among arcade game collectors. This is because of its unique shape, and unique controls that makes it different from the rest.
- Both Assault and Assault Plus were included on Namco Museum.



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Indeed. It was one hell of a ride.

Assault is more than a shmup, it is a technical accomplishment on terms of old school arcade as it brings out all the potential of the once-brand new arcade hardware to its limits.
In the wake of the game's 35th anniversary, it is a grateful surprise to finally have the arcade perfect version of the game to play at home (and on the go for Switch owners).
Go to the online store, pick the game and give it a shot. It is really worthy.


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