Steel Empire (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Steel Empire is a very typical side-scrolling shoot'em-up (shmup) style game, and barely deviates from this formula. There are only three buttons used: forward and backwards shot, as well as bomb. As the player progresses, they grab 'power up' icons that slowly make the plane shoot with a wider array and cause more damaging waves of destruction. Unlike other games of this ilk, there is a life bar, meaning the plane can take multiple hits before losing a life.

The graphics are very 'efficient' - everything looks clean and the 3D effects are well done. The major problem is that in games like this, there is a lot is happening at once and it is not conducive to the rather impressive effects simply because it is too hard to process the distinction between what needs to be dodged and what is merely part of the background. Resultantly, a major part of the reason someone may want this game is not particularly useful.

An interesting option provided is the ability to pick either the small agile plane or the bigger, slower alternative on each level. One is supposed to be air-to-ground focused but the differences in practice are hard to tell; the only thing that really matters is a smaller hit box and smaller life bar, or bigger sprite and bigger hit box. This gets to a key problem with Steel Empire: it is too easy. Anyone with even standard shmup skills will likely beat this on 'Normal' first time without even using a continue, and they may even beat a few levels without losing a single life.

At full price, it is hard to recommend this. The game is pretty good, there is no doubt about it, but it is just too short, with no innovation, and there is no real challenge. It is quite shocking when being reminded that this is a 20-year-old game and gamers are being asked to pay full retail price for it. Whilst a well done game, one that when it came out originally was likely far ahead its genre stable-mates at the time, this is just an old game with new veneer. Just think of Pong having new graphics and the publisher charging retail price to play it…