£20 could buy a person a lot of things. 20 bottles of Coca-Cola (other brands are available), 80 Freddos, 2 or more copies of Battlborne, a single can of ‘indie’ beer, or in some instances, it could also buy one a remaster of a 26 year old Sega Genesis shooter-platformer, Assault Suit Leynos. Usually matters such as price, and availability of a title should be left until the very end of a review, or any article for that matter. However, in this particular case, the entry point is probably the biggest and the only weak point of the title in question. And this is not because Assault Suit Leynos is a short title, but because it is an extremely simple little game, which sources its playtime from punishing difficulty.
Assault Suit Leynos, is a very simple, yet captivating 2D shooter, and will most likely appeal to many fans of the genre, as well as the anime-mech setting enthusiasts. The eternity of the title takes place in two dimensions, on a single platform. However, unlike other titles of the genre, Assault Suit Leynos makes use of the entirety of the platform, throughout each and every mission. Enemy spawn points, as well as mission specific objectives, vary with each and every battle. Some missions will have the player press onwards, while demolishing enemy grunts, whereas other missions require the person in control to protect the mission objective from the constant onslaught, as well as the ‘boss’ enemy which appears at the end of all missions, and has to be stopped before it can reach, and destroy the end-game objective.
With each completed mission, the difficulty raises to brand new overwhelming levels, but every single time it takes a step up the ladder of punishment, the player is also rewarded with new pieces of equipment. Launchers, rifles, and passive items, can all be assigned to numerous equipment slots, meaning that it is possible to create ever new destructive combinations, which will ultimately pave the way to success with molten metal, rivets, and bolts. Can’t beat the current level, not enough health? Then remove the shotgun, and equip addition armour system which grants an additional life, and therefore makes the mission objective achievable.
Equipment combinations are plentiful, but due to Assault Suit Leynos being a remaster of a 26 year old game, it has its limitations and doesn’t come close to modern customisation standards, and after few hours every player will simply stick to a single equipment layout, and won’t change it until the very end. And the only thing which will make the player test out weapons other than the assault rifle, and the odd electric rifle thing, is curiosity, as in comparison to the two starting weapons, majority of launchers and rifles feels weak, and disappointing. They all have interesting visual effects, and shot trajectory which can reach enemies positioned in hard to get places, but most players will value their in-game lives over pretty visual effects.
Visually Assault Suit Leynos, is simply a polished up version of the original game, which was released on Sega Genesis all those years ago. And as pleasing to the eye as it is, it’s just not good enough considering the price point, at which the title has been recently released on PSN. And before anybody jumps to any conclusions it has to be stated that there is nothing wrong with the quality of the visuals, as such is for majority of the time, crystal clear. The problem with the visuals of Assault Suit Leynos however, stems from the lack of variety when it comes to character models.
About 80% of the in-game enemies boils down to green hunched over mech’s, and blue planes which are occasionally flying over player’s head, clumsily trying to bombard him/her with rockets. The lack of visual variety doesn’t get boring three or four hours in, it gets tiresome after two or three missions, as for the most time players are simply mowing down green mech’s, which are nothing else than shields for the larger enemies, which themselves are bombarding the player from afar. And by the time he/she reaches the larger, more distinguished opponents, all players’ mech shields will be mostly depleted, and another wave of green hunchbacks will already be knocking at the proverbial door.
At its core, as previously stated, Assault Suit Leynos is an extremely simple game, and while it has been remastered to meet the ‘modern standards’, it fails to tick any of the contemporary boxes. Some will dislike it for the cheap, retro difficulty spikes, designed to make player’s life a living hell. Others will detest it for its far eastern art style. Whereas majority of the PlayStation 4, and PC install base will stay away from it because of the steep price point, as there is simply not enough packaged within the box which constitutes the complete Assault Suit Leynos. Currently much better, and much more approachable titles can be purchased from PlayStation Store for much less. Even if you’re a hardcore fan of retro shooters, you should consider waiting for the price of Assault Suit Leynos to drop. And in the meantime everybody should give Hotline Miami, and Hotline Miami 2 a chance, as both titles are now on sale on PlayStation Network, and will surely scratch everybody’s ‘retro’ itch.