With street fighter-styled boss encounter screens and a multitude of different filters to make your flat screen look old-timey, Steel Assault has the visual style pinned down. The graphical style is almost painfully retro. This is a huge shot in the leg, as the game tries to relate to arcade-styled replayability, and the modern competition in this genre of games does not allow any room for imperfections. Steel Assault has some bullet hell elements here and there, but the movement abilities aren’t enough to let the player navigate through them with confidence. It doesn’t matter how much steroids Megaman took for this side gig, if the dashing, double jumping, and shooting double-sided rope thingies just don’t give the player enough speed to precisely navigate through the levels and boss battles. Steel Assault’s problem lies in the momentum. The basic attack is easy to perform, and platforming feels precise. At the first expressions, the controls felt tight and precise. Gameplay is the pinnacle of side-scrolling action games, and Steel Assaults is okay at best. Action is challenging, but surprisingly the playthrough experience felt easy compared to the older side-scrolling classics. Games different levels are on the shorter side and checkpoints are spaced sparsely. Steel Assault is developed by Zenovia Interactive and relies heavily on the arcade-style, which is one of the biggest strengths of the game, but also its biggest downfall.

Steel assault initial release date