Steel Empire (1992; 2018)

 Steel Empire is a quirky horizontal shoot'em up that was originally released on the SEGA Mega Drive in 1992. It has a lot of things that set it apart. Starting with gameplay, despite being a horizontal shooter, apart from two short sections there aren't the usual environmental hazards. This is mainly due to, I suspect, its main gameplay feature: the ability to shoot backwards as well as ahead thus making level design usually with the player in a central position as enemies fly in from the right and left. Unfortunately, you can only ever shoot forwards OR backwards and never both at the same time. While interesting in theory, in practice it's a fiddly proposition especially in higher difficulties. The barebones button configuration does not allow using right and left triggers on a controller, which would be a lot less clunky and quicker to use than X and B on the Xbox controller configuration.

 But it goes on, this is one of the rare shooters with a life bar as well as the ability to recharge said bar via power-ups. Regarding firepower both ships just have one type of weapon. However, you can upgrade it up to twenty levels (by picking up 3 power-ups). As I alluded it to, there are two ships. One slow and strong, another fast and fragile. With these many options and gimmicks it's disappointing that the shooting never feels great. It only ever gets faster but as the enemies you face get harder, there isn't a sense of progression.

The final thing that sets it apart is the setting. This is a steampunk game so think trains, zeppelins, and biplanes. The planes especially are somewhat animalized as they flap their wings like birds. It's not exactly cutesy but somewhat toy or Disney-like and there's a similarity to Irem's In the Hunt, but not so richly animated. Then again this is originally a 16 bit console game, not an arcade game. For what it is, it's really quite good and very original. The character design is strong and charismatic. Yet the bosses are quite repetitive, and disappointing in their patterns, usually having you having to fly ahead or behind so you can shoot their weak points. The exception is the final (true) boss which is quite a delight and a surprise.

Presentation on this PC port is a mixed bag. On the one hand the graphics are quite overhauled from the 30 year old original. But the menus are bare and poor with very few settings available and cheap looking menus. It has, however, modest controller configuration (rather than none at all) and various difficulty settings. However, the game is very well upscaled for high definition, a tier above what most other smaller publishers have achieved.

In the end this is quite an original shooter, even if not everything makes sense as an innovation. Its different setting and replayability, having different difficulty settings and different ships, as well as a reasonably long campaign and hidden boss makes it a worthwhile investment of your time, especially if you're not into modern shooters or bullet hell. The game is very accessible to get into for newcomers too, perhaps an ideal starting point. Finally the original setting and presentation is still very fresh after all these years.