It’s tough to figure out exactly what you should expect when it comes to 8-bit light-gun games. The genre was in its infancy, and there was no way to tell how it would evolve as time went on. We had hits like Duck Hunt but these were very limited. Other genres such as platformers were advancing but not light-gun shooters. These were trapped by the fundamentals. Enter Assault City. This PAL only release for the Sega Master System is one such game trapped in time. I saw screenshots and had to track it down because hey, I liked the aesthetic. I spent some time with the game and I have a few things to say about it. Keep reading this review to find out why it’s best left in time.
Assault City is a slight rip-off of the Terminator scenario. Wait, let me rephrase. It basically copies the entire concept. Robots have taken over the planet via what is called the ‘control system.’ Tired of being mere servants to mankind our former allies have gathered to overthrow it. Blah, blah, blah. Well, not so much. Assault City actually has a lot of story (as told through still scenes) and I was surprised at the lengths it goes to paint this scenario. Any admiration is dashed instantly by the consistent spelling errors and weird grammar, but hey, Sega sure tried!
Limitations with the hardware render Assault City as a ‘scrolling light-gun game.’ So what exactly is this? Well, it means that you view a background that moves to the right as enemies walk (or fly) from off-screen. Your only job is to shoot them down before they can damage you and reduce your life bar. Sega released two version of Assault City on PAL territories. One let’s players use a light-gun to shoot down foes, and the other limits them to the directional pad wherein you guide an on-screen reticule. This review is for the latter version as the former is a lot more rare and hence more expensive. I was only able to track down the controller version, but I think it’s a good representation of the entire package. The outcome isn’t particularly good though.
I’m going to set up this review a little differently from how I usually do things. I’m going to start with what I like about the game. I enjoyed the emphasis on story here. It may be a re-tread of Terminator, but where else could writers go in terms of a robot uprising? The story sequences constant, and in between every level. It’s a nice touch. I also really like the fact that Assault City determines it’s difficulty based on the practice stage in the beginning. You shoot tiles on-screen when they flip, but they turn to both human or robot. The result is tallied at the end, and how well you performed determines how difficult the main game will be.
Now for the bad. The fact that the screen only scrolls to the right is a bit of a bummer. Even more of a wet blanket is the fact that even on the low difficulty setting you’re constantly dealing with a screen full of enemies. That wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that the reticule doesn’t exactly move at the speed of a cheetah. Another annoying fact is that they come from up above, below, and left/right. You never quite know where to focus and have to stay on your toes constantly. Usually I find light-gun shooters relaxing but that’s never the case here. I found that to be successful I had to stay focused and mash buttons. That’s not something I look for as far as light-gun games go.
And that’s the main problem with Assault City. It’s far to frantic and fast paced for a light-gun game. Normally I play these titles as a way to practice my aim, but that’s impossible here with so many enemies on-screen. It’s hardly relaxing, and more than a fair bit stressful. To make matters worse each stage has only a few different enemies. As far as I could tell there are only three enemy types per level. That’s not nearly diverse enough, and most of the time they just repeat the same patterns. Boss characters also fail to offer any diversity and once you figure out where and when to strike it’s usually a matter of moving the reticule either right or left. Assault City just isn’t fun.
On another note the graphics are actually pretty cool. Assault City takes advantage of the Sega Master System’s hardware by offering a very wide range color palette. There’s a neon motif at play here that I really like. The backgrounds in particular are breathtaking by system standards. They’re full of detail and make use of a really fun cyberpunk sort of style. The enemies are a little less impressive and look pretty generic. Some are basic robots and others are basic Terminator rip-offs. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is pretty poor to be honest. It’s a frantic assortment of bleeps and blips no matter which stage you’re on, and is hard to focus on to be honest. None of the music makes any sense, but it does fit the crazy nature of the game.
Assault City is not very good, to put it bluntly. The game doesn’t have anything to offer that other similar titles didn’t do, and better at that. It’s pretty plain to see why this one wasn’t released outside of PAL territories; that’s the only region the system was a success and you’d have to be one in order to sell such mediocrity in cartridge form. I really like the Japanese aesthetic, and the difficulty selection is a cool feature. Aside from those factors Assault City is a very mediocre light gun shooter. I’m talking of course about the controller version, but I can’t imagine this one improves in significant stride when players are using a light-gun. It’s just poorly designed.
