
The game makes use of an elevated playing field as in Darius and Thunder Force. You’ll be using the charged shot to take down most bosses as the normal weapons are weak on their own.Ĭompared to the vast majority of shooters Android Assault is slower paced. The only downside is that you are defenseless while it goes to work. A fully charged chase cannon turns into a fiery snake that sticks to its targets until death.

Each weapon changes pretty dramatically the satellite bombs unleash a cluster of bombs that leave a large explosion in their wake. There are three levels of charge and as a bonus the meter fills quickly. It’s like R-Type except here when you aren’t attacking the charge meter fills up. While in most cases that would be damning the charge meter makes most of the weapons actually worth using. You become a large target and its only use is as a one hit shield.Īs I’ve outlined most of the weapons have a drawback. After your third power-up your ship transforms into a mech. Gathering power-ups is easy as they are plentiful, enabling you to get back up to speed after death. The Satellite Bombs have their uses in select situations but aren’t my favorite. Fans of Macross will recognize their spread although it is the weakest weapon in the game. The Chase Cannon is your standard homing missiles. The Burning wave is your typical laser that upgrades to a wall of five (!) lasers. It upgrades to a wide shot but actually isn’t that great due to a lack of power. The Thunder Cracker is your default Vulcan cannon.

Weapon selection is a bit low for the genre but each weapon is pretty effective. It’s also dirt cheap at this point and worth seeking out. This unassuming title got middling reviews at the time but is better than the press gave it credit. While Robo Aleste is my favorite shmup on the system Android Assault is not far behind. While a sizable chunk of its library is composed of Genesis ports with terrible FMV the original titles are what made the system worth owning. Looking back the Sega CD managed to build up a decent shooter library all things considered.
