WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm

Back in the mid-90s, the shooter (or "shmup." God, I hate that word) was king. In the home gaming market, the Genesis in particular seemed to play home to most of the great shooters on the market. The Sega CD? Not so much. But there were a few of them on there. And they were pretty cool, if only for the CD perks they featured -- big, sprite-animation cut scenes; redbook audio; and...well, that was usually it.

Android Assault falls pretty much squarely into the "coulda been on the Genesis" category of Sega CD games, as did most shooters on the system. And it's not really an amazing shooter, to boot. But it's not all that bad, either.

The story is, well, unimportant. Some sort of evil is threatening the galaxy, you're the only hope for peace, and you go blow said evil shit up for a few levels. The key difference in Android Assault is that you're piloting something more than your standard starfighter -- your pretty ship can turn into an awesome giant robot!

It actually sounds a bit cooler than it ends up being. For, when you turn into this robot, it just sort of flies around the screen, frozen in a single pose. It's really nothing more than an on-screen indicator that your current weapon has been upgraded to the highest level, actually. But to 90s Greg, it was still pretty neat.

Android Assault is relatively short and easy as shooters go. It does fire out a few pretty unique levels, though. The long descent to a planet surface, followed by a lengthy battle beneath that planet's ocean is definitely not something you saw every day back then. And the bosses tend to be rather large, as well, with a few of them even filling the screen.

Android Assault was published in North America by Big Fun Games. I can't for the life of me find out anything about this company -- not even if they published anything else here.

The developer, however, is one I'm sure a few folks have heard of. Human Entertainment is likely better known in most circles as the house behind the FirePro Wrestling series, along with the Clock Tower games that enjoyed a bit of success on the PlayStation. It also spat out a few Formula 1 games over the years. They folded in 1999, and this was their only Sega CD title.

There is a more contemporary connection, though. Human Entertainment was the first development house to employ Goichi Suda -- aka Suda51, of No More Heroes and Killer7 fame.

See? The Sega CD is the system that just keeps on giving and giving.

Next Up: The Animals!