Assault Suit Valken Declassified (Rainmaker, M2, Switch)

[Yoshi]

Publisher Rainmaker Productions and developer M2 have announced Assault Suits Valken Declassified, an updated re-release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Assault Suits Valken, retranslated and uncensored for the first time. It will launch for Switch this spring worldwide.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/02/assault ... for-switch

The amount of seemingly concurrent projects M2 is juggling is crazy.

[Sengoku Strider]

This was originally released in the West by Konami as Cybernator, for anyone not familiar.

[Rastan78]

Wow this is a dream port for me. Even in the day I was aware of the butchered localization. Think I must've glimpsed screens with the JP anime talking heads in Game Fan or somewhere. Still enjoyed the hell out of Cybernator though. With M2 involved this will be buy day one.

@BIL it might be time to get a Switch lol. Why no PS4 tho!?

[drauch]

I always forget, is this the one where the dude blows his brains out?

[XtraSmiley]

Wow this is a dream port for me. Even in the day I was aware of the butchered localization. Think I must've glimpsed screens with the JP anime talking heads in Game Fan or somewhere. Still enjoyed the hell out of Cybernator though. With M2 involved this will be buy day one.

@BIL it might be time to get a Switch lol. Why no PS4 tho!?

Yeah, where is the PS4 love?

The PS4 got the Target Earth remake (which is good!) so it would make sense to get this as well!

[TransatlanticFoe]

Maybe they'll include the PS2 difficulty without the rest of its jank. It'd be good to have a challenge, as great as the game is it's too easy - the PS2 version makes everything hit much harder and gives bosses more health (and also changes power up drops which makes it impossible to fully power up laser, and of course it's impossible to aim sensibly too).

[BIL]

@ Rastan, too much on me plate as-is Happy enough with the SFC ver, but I'd grab this in a heartbeat.

@ TAF, agreed, a bit more oomph in the early game would be nice. The back half's pretty busy, the front could use the shot frequency cranking up.

I always forget, is this the one where the dude blows his brains out?

Yes! Anime Budd Dwyer is in the house, ready to scare the kids with his ceiling-spattering antics! Konami's SNES release butchered all of Urushihara-sama's beautiful art, even the SFW stuff! 3;

Now, even gaijin will be FULLY SET UP FOR PENETRATION and hollering IT'S HAPPENIN / WE GOTTA DO IT!



HARD N DEEP

PSA: Level up the fuckin Punch! The devs want u 2

[Rastan78]

@ Rastan, too much on me plate as-is Happy enough with the SFC ver, but I'd grab this in a heartbeat.

Yeah it's kind of like the M2 Vania and Contras. I won't kick them out of bed, but it's not like the carts are inaccessible. More excited for the PCB accurate or obscure arcade stuff. Still I like the idea of having this new localization. Reminds me of when M2 did Monster World IV as part of thr SVC series PS3/360. I don't play much via emulator so I never get around to all the fan made translation patches and what not.

[hamfighterx]

The amount of seemingly concurrent projects M2 is juggling is crazy.

While true, this is not really that new of a thing for M2. Over the past decade plus they've been perpetually juggling tons of projects. A Sega Ages collection here, a mini-console there, alongside stuff like adding whole consoles and a library of games to platforms (Nintendo Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online service, PS3/PSP Neo Geo Station, etc.), developing new original games (GG Aleste 3, Aleste Branch, Koihime Enbu, etc.), working on multiple commissioned ports for the likes of Square Enix (e.g., Legend of Mana remake) or Konami (e.g., Castlevania Advance Collection) or Taito (Darius, Ray'z), etc. Oh, and that's not to mention their self-published STG releases!

But like... is it really THAT different from over a decade ago when they were simultaneously cranking out console ports for Cave while working on PS2 Sega Ages 2500 titles and heavily involved in Nintendo Virtual Console? Probably not.

[BIL]

Doing a little spring cleaning reminded me of how goddamn good Dracue's Assault Suit Leynos remake (PS4/Steam) is.



Anyone who loves Valken but found the original MD Leynos a bit too archaic by comparison should jump on it - it brings the controls and handling right up to ASV spec. Anyone who already loves MD Leynos (hi!) should double jump on it - in addition to the nicely rebalanced Arcade Mode, it includes a Classic Mode that hews far nearer the MD's famously ruthless difficulty, playing like an in-engine remake.

It's a really obvious labour of love; you can tell the devs were very much part of the game's cult following. The combination of Valken control and Leynos carnage is perhaps my favourite thing to ever bear the Assault Suits name. kitten's badass Arcade and Classic runs demonstrate the ultra-smooth arcade/sim heavy metal hybrid

As in Valken, momentum paired with judicious aggression is king. THIS IS NO ZAKU, BOY (｀w´メ)

Spoiler

Mind the WHITE-HOT JET BLAST (◎w◎;)

Spoiler

Something I particularly love is the subtlety of hard vs soft landings. The former - notice the screen violently shaking in the top gif - will stop you from jumping for an instant, as your mech absorbs the impact. If you tap the Vernier just beforehand, you'll get a smooth touchdown and can instantly rocket back into the air. Reminds me a bit of ActRaiser II and its own tech landings. As with Valken, the balance of sim heft to arcade pep is juuust right.

[Sima Tuna]

I hope we get the usual suite of M2 extras and customization options. I'm cautiously excited about this one.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Damn this is making me want to bash my head against Leynos 2 now I've got a new Saturn, see if I can finally clear that godawful escort mission. Maybe there's hope for a Leynos 2 modernisation!

[Sengoku Strider]

Damn this is making me want to bash my head against Leynos 2 now I've got a new Saturn

DO IT

For the culture.

[MintyTheCat]

I never knew the title for track 2 : Fully Set Up For Penetration. I wonder how much was lost in the translation

I had Valken and remember seeing it review around '92/'93. It gave you this feeling of clomping around in a big suit.

Good that it's being resurrected for new and old players. We have to thank M2 for the service really.

[BIL]

NCS Masaya and Satoshi Urushihara, both names synonymous with deep penetration into foreign territory

Every fan translation patch I saw back in the day was missing the (Valken and Leynos spoilers)

Spoiler

post-credits scene, which reveals that the preceding game chronicles the final days of the titanic global war mentioned in Leynos; the broken transmission is a distress call from that game's antagonist force, a lost deep space colony who return with a vengeance ten years later.

It's a really cool bit of lore, connecting Leynos and Valken across two competing consoles. I hope M2 cover it; actually, knowing them, I'm sure the release will include some lore materials explaining all this to Western fans who might not realise Target Earth and Cybernator are directly related.

[Klatrymadon]

Leynos 2 always seems to be regarded as a total nightmare, but I swear when I bought it 15+ years ago I cleared it the same afternoon, having struggled with nothing. I'm definitely no great shakes, either. Was this a fluke, or is there particularly easy mech build I might have stumbled upon?

[BIL]

Good fundamentals and transferrable skills.

Where Leynos 1 is a large-scale battlefield roamer, defined by its viciously unpredictable spawns, and Valken is a more streamlined arcade/cinema, stocked end-to-end with killer setpieces, I find Leynos 2 more of a sandbox game; stacks and stacks and stacks of gear to mess about with, in a super-detailed control scheme (so good having a button for each weapon).

The ultimate Assault Suits game has yet to come, imo; each has a very distinct edge not found in its companions. Just more reason to play 'em all ofc.

[Air Master Burst]

I really hope Darius sold well on Steam because I would like to get in on these M2 ports someday. I'm all for buying improved versions of classic games I can already play, but not if it also means buying a Switch and upgrading my hitbox boards first.

Give me decent PC ports and I'll throw money at you, M2. Hand over fist!

[cfx]

Where Leynos 1 is a large-scale battlefield roamer, defined by its viciously unpredictable spawns, and Valken is a more streamlined arcade/cinema, stocked end-to-end with killer setpieces, I find Leynos 2 more of a sandbox game; stacks and stacks and stacks of gear to mess about with, in a super-detailed control scheme (so good having a button for each weapon).

I first played the Genesis Target Earth back in the day at a friend's house who had the console before I did, and I will always remember how we played this game--if you saw one of those larger walker mechs at the very beginning of stage one, you just reset and start over because that is going to be an impossible run.

[ExitPlanetDust]

Damnit, I really keep hoping for a wider release announcement. I’ve been playing the PS4 Leynos remake a lot. While it’s a fantastic game, it just doesn’t quite have the chunkiness of Valken.

[evil_ash_xero]

Is this going to be trapped on the Switch? I'd love to get it for PS4.

[BloodHawk]

Just a heads up, this is now on sale for just $10 USD until the 26th.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Thanks for the heads up, with the points I'd accumulated I got it for about £2

Did a quick napalm run and a less quick normal run.

New translation seems largely fine, good to have something official that's not Engrishy but why is Kurt now Kurtz? It definitely has a few areas where it feels a bit less natural compared to Cybernator, so while it may be more accurate it isn't necessarily better (aside from where Cybernator barely made sense).

Not sure if this is just Valken vs. Cybernator (didn't notice a difference last time but haven't had a working emulator for a few years now) but it definitely seemed a little tougher. I'm sure there are more of those floating mines in Arc Nova and the bosses take a bit more punishment. Not on the scale of the PS2 version though, that's fairly brutal.