If you gamed in the 90s, you may fondly remember Steel Empire, the beloved side-scrolling shoot ’em up from the Sega Genesis days. With its cool steampunk vibe and intense bullet-hell action, Steel Empire carved out a spot in many gamers’ hearts. Though lesser known than genre titans like R-Type or Gradius, real shmup heads showed Steel Empire mad love. After ports to GBA and 3DS, Steel Empire now lands on Switch as The Legend of Steel Empire, an enhanced reboot primed to rule the skies once more.
This HD remake respects the original’s pixelated spirit while taking things up a notch. Visuals shine with new flourishes like dynamic lighting and background animations. The Victorian sci-fi universe looks richer but just as quirky. Gameplay sticks to its shoot ’em up roots, with a simple yet thrilling formula of dodging waves of bullets while blasting enemies to bits. As you pilot nimble fighters and sturdy zeppelins across seven levels, you’ll collect fierce firepower-ups, tackle screen-filling bosses, and hopefully avoid a fiery demise.
Though a relatively faithful rendition, The Legend of Steel Empire adds some modern touches like achievements to unlock concept art. It may be a reboot, but it wants you to feel at home – like hanging with an old friend who got a slick makeover. So strap in and get ready to rain down shock and awe across these reimagined retro battlefields. The Empire’s calling.
A Visual Feast of Rivets and Gears
The Legend of Steel Empire retains the original’s beloved steampunk style while serving up plenty of visual enhancements. Zeppelins, biplanes, and locomotives fill the skies and landscapes, now extra vibrant with backdrops like mining quarries, ghostly graveyards, and even the inky void of space. Sprite work pops thanks to touched-up animations and effects like screen-shaking explosions. Shots and crashes now spark cathartic lightning bursts alongside chunky smoke clouds.
This HD remake upholds Steel Empire’s gritty industrial vibe but sports cleaner visuals free of overly fuzzy pixels. The art doesn’t reinvent the wheel but instead polishes it to a brilliant sheen. From the main menu to the gameplay and cutscenes, everything looks crisper. The new widescreen view shows off these visual tweaks whether you game on your big screen TV or in handheld mode.
The interface also sees some modernization with extra menus and an achievement system wrapped in meta humor. Unlocking feats like destroying a zeppelin awards pieces of concept art – a nice way to peek behind the curtain. Other touches like animated backgrounds during loads showcase attention to detail.
Through it all, The Legend of Steel Empire retains its quintessential old-school spirit – now outfitted with a slick new coat of paint. The enhanced visuals let Steel Empire’s eccentric personality shine brighter than ever before. It won’t win any awards for technical prowess, but achieves something greater: refreshing a beloved retro art style that inspired many steampunk games to follow.
Simple Yet Addictive Shmup Action
The Legend of Steel Empire delivers straightforward side-scrolling shooter gameplay refuses to reinvent the wheel – and that’s just fine. Nostalgic fans will feel right at home piloting sleek fighters and lumbering zeppelins while newcomers can easily get blasting. The Switch version retains the Genesis original’s three-button control scheme: one button fires left, another fires right, and the third triggers a devastating smart bomb that annihilates bullets and bad guys alike.
Player skill stems more from twitch reflexes and pattern memorization over complex inputs. But there’s still room for strategy, like choosing between the nimble Etupirka biplane or the heavily-armored but slower Zeppelin airship before jumping into one of seven increasingly chaotic levels. Beyond cosmetic differences in their sprite designs, these ships impact speed and durability, demanding distinct tactics against the same bullet barrage. Still, both rain down pain just fine once upgraded.
Gathering precious Power-Up icons gradually boosts offensive strength twenty levels deep. By end game, you’ll pummel foes with electrified cluster missiles alongside two escort drones for extra staying power. And for weapon diversity, certain pickups temporarily replace your pea-shooters with searing flamethrowers. Lucky players might nab an extra Smart Bomb or 1-Up icon too – handy perks, but never a sure bet when snagging each item means braving a hailstorm of lead.
Waves of enemies onslaught from both sides while diabolical mid-level and final bosses creep closer, blasting away and even chasing you down. But the difficulty proves deliciously challenging without feeling unfair. The bullet patterns intimidate at first, but repeat plays uncover their rhythmic nature. In time, you’ll slip through anarchic barrages unscathed – still, buckle up for late game insanity! Overall, The Legend of Steel Empire ensures old-school arcade thrills that test your grit without ever losing the fun factor.
A Mostly Harmonious Audio Experience
The Legend of Steel Empire delivers a solid aural experience befitting its bombastic shoot-’em-up action, though a few sour notes hold it back from greatness. The musical score mixes militaristic melodies with SNES-style tones to set an appropriate mood across Imperial strongholds, etheral graveyards, and other battlegrounds. Simple yet effective sound design means weapon blasts and explosions pack a nice wallop.
In terms of presentation though, the audio proves inconsistent. On default settings, the thundering effects overpower subtler tracks like the title screen’s tune which adds an annoying camera clicking gimmick. Furthermore, certain background songs suffer from distortion almost resembling bad MIDI conversion. Lowering SFX levels separately mitigates these problems, but having to manually adjust mixes feels sloppy.
Beyond balance issues, everything sounds clean enough to complement the hectic space battles…once you tweak things to your liking. The soundtrack may not linger long after powering down, but proves an asset not a distraction during gameplay. Considering the venerable genesis original contained just three music tracks, the added variety here gets appreciated.
In the end, players craving an audio visual showcase may feel underwhelmed. Yet for shooter fans seeking a familiar fix of explosive 16-bit action, The Legend of Steel Empire delivers all the essential aural thrills, even if the presentation warrants improvement.
Short But Sweet with Some Longevity
Spanning seven levels, The Legend of Steel Empire provides a few hours of intense old-school action ideal for short burst play sessions. Each stage features waves of quirky steam-powered enemies leading up to screen-filling bosses. Clear all levels once and you’ll witness an oddball ending along with credits poking fun at player expectations. Beyond superficial gags though, this modern reboot offers worthwhile reasons to return to the skies for further sorties.
An achievement system catalogues feats like not getting hit or beating certain levels without dying. Each milestone awarded unlocks pieces of concept art – not game-changing but nice artifacts for longtime fans. More importantly, those seeking fresh challenges can return on higher difficulties bumping up the bullet counts. Or by acing the game, a tutorial mode grants unlimited lives and maxed out firepower to casually blast through levels turned playgrounds.
For a truly retro trip, it might have been nice to unlock the original Genesis game. And some extra modes like score attacks or level editors could lend more mileage. Still, with multiple ships, adjustable difficulty, and achievements to keep hardcore players grinding, The Legend of Steel Empire offers adequate content given its retro roots as a short-but-sweet arcade shooter. Those craving a huge game overflowing with modes may feel disappointed. Yet for fans of intense side-scrolling shoot ’em ups, this classics-inspired title packs plenty of replay value into its modest asking price.
Smooth Skies with Just a Few Clouds
Considering its retro roots, The Legend of Steel Empire shines where it really counts – fast and fluid side-scrolling shooter gameplay uncompromised by performance issues. Both docked and handheld modes stick to a solid 60 frames-per-second without any noticeable slowdowns even when the screen fills with chaotic bullet patterns. Load times prove reasonably swift as well. Besides some minor visual glitches like errant pixels, the game runs smooth as silk.
However, the localization shows a bit of roughness around the edges. Typos and awkward grammar permeate menu screens and the story synopsis alike. Thankfully these presentational blemishes fail to impede the actual gameplay. And a patch could easily resolve such textual troubles.
In the end, The Legend of Steel Empire avoids any major technical troubles which might have plagued this enhanced port of a vintage Genesis game. Aside from scattered oddities in the English translation, the shooting action shines with stability and precision key to enjoying this high-octane genre. Fans craving fast shooter gameplay can rest easy – this classic soars high on Switch without the kind of show-stopping bugs or slowdown which might ground its flight. Clear skies ahead for blasting binges!
The Empire Strikes Back in Style
For shoot-’em-up fans, The Legend of Steel Empire proudly reestablishes this lesser-known Genesis gem as gaming royalty on the Switch. As a definitive edition, it retains the compelling core of addictive side-scrolling action that made Steel Empire so memorable decades ago. Credit Mebius for thoughtfully enhancing the audiovisuals to better match modern tastes while exercising restraint to not upset a proven formula. The result remains respectfully faithful to veterans while inviting a new generation of gamers to the skies.
That said, The Legend of Steel Empire won’t convert players uninterested in old-school shooters. Those craving deep storylines and presentations may feel disappointed by the threadbare narrative. But within its niche realm, Steel Empire stands taller than many peers. Going head-to-head shows its strengths against contemporaries like the R-Type and Gradius re-releases. Though overshadowed by those iconic franchises, Steel Empire’s steampunk style and 360-degree shooting mechanics help it stand apart. Plus with visuals now smoothed out and expanded, The Legend of Steel Empire makes a compelling case to be counted amid shmup royalty.
Sure, slightly more extras would have been nice along with less localization woes. Yet, even in the face of minor flaws, Mebius successfully reignited this cult classic shooter bound to thrill both longtime acolytes and curious newcomers. For students of shoot-’em-up history or anyone eager for explosive space combat, The Legend of Steel Empire deserves enlistment into your Switch library. All systems are go and the Empire awaits – it’s time to heed the call to arms!
The Review
The Legend of Steel Empire
At its core, The Legend of Steel Empire stays true to the brilliant shoot 'em up action that made the original a cult classic. This enhanced remake retains the same addictive gameplay while upgrading the visual presentation to better suit modern tastes. Though the barebones story leaves little emotional impact, fast-paced aerial duels set in a quirky steampunk world overflow with intense fun. Some minor issues hold it back from absolute greatness, but Steel Empire emerges mightier than ever, proudly staking its claim as a Nintendo Switch essential.
PROS
- Addictive, high-octane shooter gameplay
- Faithful enhanced visuals improve on the retro pixel art style
- Eclectic steampunk aesthetic gives the game flair
- Good variety and challenge across 7 levels
- Achievements add replay value
CONS
- Barebones narrative
- Audio balancing issues
- Lack of extras like the original Genesis version
- Some localization/translation hiccups
