ININ have been porting all kinds of shoot em ups from decades past and I’m been enjoying discovering hidden gems I’d never played before. Their latest is a 5 game pack from the 90s and 00s – Over Horizon x Steel Empire. This is a great dip back in time to visit some great arcade gems and with hopefully some post launch patching, these have the potential to be real must haves for arcade gamers.
This collection of games contains Over Horizon (NES), Steel Empire (Mega Drive original), Steel Empire (GameBoy Advance version) and then Japanese versions of both Steel Empire games. There aren’t many differences that I noticed between the English and Japanese versions but all five games have two things in common. The first is a sense of scale. Each game has you taking control of your ship and trying to take down some huge enemies. Sometimes an entire level is about taking out a giant airship segment by segment and it feels extremely satisfying to play and progress through. Not many 8-bit shoot em ups had such lofty ambitions to have so much going on at scale but it sets the games apart. The second thing they all have in common is a fantastic weapon system.
Whilst each game lets you choose between two ships each level with slightly different stats, the way you build up your weapons is quite unusual. You can attach two weapon pods that can block attacks and fire back at the enemy but in the menu you can design where they sit. You can place them up front for maximum fire, to the sides for a wider burst of attacks, or to rear to block attacks from behind. You can do this for each of the three main weapons and also spend points to change the weapons’ effectiveness in certain ways too. This means you can save layouts and stats for each weapon type and this kind of granular customisation is a fantastic idea. I’ve not seen it in a game I’ve played before and its rarely been explored since. I’d love for this to be reintroduced into shoot em ups again. This collection lets you test new layouts in levels too so you can ensure you’ve not made some bad decisions.
When it comes to the moment to moment gameplay, both Over Horizon and Steel Empire pack a punch. Movement is fluid, shooting is responsive and the hit detection exacting most of the time. Levels come with mid bosses and multi-phase end bosses and the variety of them is a boon for the series too. My main concern is less around the games themselves but the fact I suffered some horrible slow down and stuttering on both Steel Empire GBA games whenever the screen was quite busy. Given the wide scope and scale of the carnage, that happens a lot from about level 4 onwards and so it became quite tricky to play accurately. I hope a patch will solve the performance and get it silky smooth.
Whilst ININ provide different screen resolutions, background art and a fun samurai unlockable mode hidden in the original game, I really like how they’ve turned each game into a standard and a challenge mode. Standard mode allows continues, mid game saves and cheats like max fire power and infinite lives. You won’t unlock many trophies or achievements that way though. Instead, its all locked behind challenge mode that mimics everything an arcade cabinet would do. Only 3 lives. No cheats. Its hard just like 90s arcade gaming was. It will separate out the wheat from the chaff and I can confirm… I am chaff. I love the challenge though and will relish improving my skills over time.
So lets hope that performance patch comes through. If it does, this original score will bump up at least a full point because the GBA version of Steel Empire is the most visually appealing of the bunch and arguably most complete too. Without that firing on all cylinders, this is a genre lovers purchase only. There is a lot of fun to be had here though and the challenge mode will keep the dedicated shmup fan busy for some time.
Review copy provided by publisher. PS4 version tested.
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