WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Black Hole Assault

Publisher: Bignet U.S.A.

Developer: Micronet Co., Ltd.

Released: 1992

Black Hole Assault was one of the early releases on the Sega CD (cardboard box and all). I doubt many people know that it was actually a sequel to a Genesis game Heavy Nova. Not that anyone would find that overly exciting, considering how shitty Heavy Nova was.

The original cartridge game was a hybrid of the platforming and one-on-one fighter genres, where players would pilot their giant robot through short levels filled with basic enemy robots on their way to a boss encounter. Once there, the game would switch to a Street Fighter-style interface and the two robots would battle it out until one of them exploded.

And it was awful. Sluggish controls, poor level design, and abysmal hit detection made for a painful gaming experience.

Black Hole Assault ditched the platforming elements of its predecessor and went with a strictly fighting affair, featuring eight different robots to pummel into submission as players worked their way through story mode.

Unfortunately, things hadn't really improved

much with the jump to the Sega CD the interface and hit detection were still downright awful, making the game nearly unplayable. And the only real 鼎Dbit to this game was the especially long opening story scene and subsequent cut-scenes every couple of levels.

Black Hole Assault did have one interesting feature, and that was the fact that the different gravity of each planet (level) actually had an effect on the two fighters usually in the form of lower or higher jumps. It was a cool feature that was pretty much completely lost in the crappy game surrounding it.