Stellar Assault SS

[HeWhoGoverns]

What are this forum's opinions on Stellar Assault SS? I haven't been able to find out much about it, but it's pretty rare and the reviews I read make it sound awesome. What do you think?

[Limbrooke]

Apparently, it's a souped up remake of the 32X game.
I know very little about it, other than I'm not willing to pay $100+ for a StarFox clone. At least, not yet. I don't recall even seeing any footage from it either, but perhaps there are others who can speak on this.

[GaijinPunch]

The only comments I heard on it were "it's ass".

[jp]

Stellar Assault isn't a shmup first of all.


Second, its a pretty nifty 3D space fighting game. Kinda reptitious and not much going on in the design department, but its fun enough. Can be pretty at times. Though its still just a remake the 32X game Shadow Squadron.

[The Coop]

Basically, it's both a sequel and a remake of the 32X game (pseudo-sequel).

- The graphics are decent for the Saturn, especially when you take into account that this game is free roaming. They don't push the system to its limits, but they're definitely several steps above stuff like Sky Target and House of the Dead. There's little in the way of texture warping, and the textures themselves are kept pretty simple (picture something between flat-shaded polygons, and full on detailed texture mapping). When you blow something up, it flies apart in the same kind of polygonal triangles that the first game did, but with a bit of extra fireworks. Like the 32X game, there's some light sourcing used on everything (a single light).

- The levels are diverse in both locale and length. Some of the levels feel very much like what was seen in the 32X game, but there are a lot more levels this time. You'll be in space, over water, descending slowly towards a planet (which is kinda cool looking), and some will even have you flying into (and out of) a moon.

- You have two ships to choose from, with one giving you rapid fire, and the other giving you more punch in each shot. You also have a handy lock on missile, and you still have the shield for ramming things (which is used more often in this game).

- The tunes in the game are pretty decent. Nothing great, but they aren't grating either. It's BGM in the truest sense... it's there, but it's not distractingly good/bad.

- There are two ways to play this game... with all the between level cinemas and during level chatter on, or shutting it all off. The goals of each level aren't hard to figure out, so even if you understand Japanese, you don't need to sit through it all to know what to do.

It's not a cheap game anymore, but it's fun. It takes what Shadow Squadron did, and builds on it quite a bit. It's also pretty long, so set aside an hour or two if you get a chance to play it. The game isn't the Saturn's shining moment, but it's not even close to its darkest hour either. Basically, if you liked the 32X original, you'll enjoy Stellar Assault SS too as it offers a lot more over what the first game did.

[Ceph]

The only comments I heard on it were "it's ass".

Not at all. Like JP and the The Coop said, it's a pretty decent 3D space shooter (not a shmup). Of course the graphics are outdated by today's standards, but that doesn't hurt it much. Quite playable even if you don't speak Japanese. It had a very limited print run and is one of the Saturns most expensive games, so you should try before you buy (if you have the means).

[JoshF]

The price makes me want to pretend it sucks, but from what I've seen it's decent. I'm pretty sure it's the only game of it's type on the Saturn as well.

[Ghegs]

Moved to OT.

[No_not_like_Quake]

I liked the original and some of the music was good.. Does anyone know if this remake has some remixed tunes from the first game?

[Ceph]

Sorry, I've never played Shadow Squadron.

[D]

It's 16:9. Meaning if you play it on a regular 4:3 tv, you'll get BIG borders top and bottom and if you play it on a 16:9 tv you have to use your tv's zoom function and then the resolution is so crude.
It's really nothing special. The pc has tons of these kinds of games.
You can however play with the analog saturn pad which is what i would recommend for this game.
here's some youtube opening vids: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... rch=Search
I recommend you just "let it go".

[Ceph]

The second half of that 9-minute video consists of gameplay footage, so you can see for yourself if you like it.

[JoshF]

Is that 60FPS?

[No_not_like_Quake]

Is that 60FPS?

No. 30 at most.

[JoshF]

Eh, I think I was used to the way the 32X game looked so that Saturn vid looked super smooth.

[Strider77]

Resurrection!

For no real reason other than I enjoy this one quite a bit.

[guigui]

How would you compare Stellar Assault to G-Vector ?

[Jonny2x4]

Off-topic, but I'm surprised to find out that ReplayBurners accepts playthroughs of console games. I always thought they were strictly arcade games only.

[EmperorIng]

Stellar Assault I find more enjoyable than G-Vector. G-Vector does some really annoying things that make it almost impossible to 1cc (although Kollision managed to). 3 lives for the whole game. And then the game has moments where a cutscene plays, but enemies can still fire at you from offscreen!!

For its quirks Stellar Assault is far more balanced and engaging. Great controls and mission variety.

That being said, its biggest flaw is no way to save to my knowledge... A 3 hour game in one sitting is rough. Has anyone figured out if there is a way to save between missions?