Re: 150 SNES Games at the speed I can handle
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 6:39 pm
SNES Game review 71: Cybernator
The game I am going to talk about now is Cybernator or as it was known in Japan Assault Suits Valken. It was a sort of robot mecha run and gun game which was released for the Super Nintendo in 1992.
In its day it was a popular game which lots of people knew about but not so many realised that it was a part of a series of games and that it was the indirect prequel to a game called Target Earth in America and Assault Suit Leynos in Japan which had appeared on the Megadrive/Genesis in those territories but not in Europe. So Cybernator would be our first look at what you would call the Assault Suits series
Cybernator was localized and published overseas by Konami. So it is often just referred to by us British gamers as a hit Konami game from the SNES days. It was actually created by Masaya the software division of a company called NCS which stands for Nippon Computer Systems. They have made and published quite a few games but not many which have been big over here, so in this case the Konami name was probably a huge boost to Cybernators sales.
Now robots and mecha suits were supper popular when this game came out, a whole generation of kids had grown up on transformers and go bots and had started moving in to the more anime related shows involving robots and battle armour. So I remember this game being treated as if it was a dream come true by most of the people I knew.
Ok so I will give a brief version of the plot. The game takes place in the future, a future where Earth's fossil fuels have begun to run out. A large scale war has begun for control of the remaining resources, and for territory including ownership of the moon. The two warring governments, the Axis and Federation are both very advanced, advanced to the point where they have the technology at their disposal not only to go into space but also to create giant space stations and orbital weapons platforms. You play a soldier who pilots a Federation Assault Suit (The Cybernator of the title). The Assault Suit has a bulky humanoid shape and is equipped with a variety of weapons. Your main mission is to destroy the most power mech in the Axis army’s forced it is called Bildvorg.
I can’t be certain but I don’t think the story changed that much between the original Japanese version and our version Cybernator but I do know that there was some degree of censorship, for one a suicide scene was removed.
My first impression of the game was that it had pretty good graphics a well-fitting soundtrack but that it was a darn difficult game. I know that this put a few friends off of the game but I don’t think it is ridiculously hard, it’s one of those games that feels tough but rewarding. Every time you have another go you seem to get a better feel for it and more of an idea of how best to face its challenges. The more you look at the game though the deeper you realise the graphical touches run, there is a lot of destroyable scenery and it just has such good atmosphere it really pulls you in to the sci fi world it supplies. The controls do take some getting used to I will admit, but once they click with you they click. The mech, movement might surprise some who come here expecting Conta, these mechs are powerful, but heavy. So it’s a slightly slower game which is more likely to be won through tactical shooting as opposed to blipping all over the screen gunstar heroes style. Can’t see anyone going as far as having the music from the game on their MP3 player or anything but it does fit the game really well.
You have to remember that with some of these old games you don’t have passwords or save states so this adds to the challenge it means you need to devote the time to one sitting this bad boy, either that or you’re going to have to keep your SNES plugged in and keep coming back to it praying no one has banged the console
Part of the reason I have chosen to review Cybernator now is because it is being released on the Wii u’s virtual console and for the price they are asking I think the game is a good buy. So what would I rate it well I guess I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10. If you wanted to play this on the Snes though what would it cost you? Well I have had my copy so long I can’t remember what I paid for it or where I got it from but having a look online you’re doing well if you can get a cart for about 10 quid and if you look around sometimes you can get a boxed copy for about 20. Personally I’d go for a cart but it depends on how much you have and how you want to play it/keep it.
The game I am going to talk about now is Cybernator or as it was known in Japan Assault Suits Valken. It was a sort of robot mecha run and gun game which was released for the Super Nintendo in 1992.
In its day it was a popular game which lots of people knew about but not so many realised that it was a part of a series of games and that it was the indirect prequel to a game called Target Earth in America and Assault Suit Leynos in Japan which had appeared on the Megadrive/Genesis in those territories but not in Europe. So Cybernator would be our first look at what you would call the Assault Suits series
Cybernator was localized and published overseas by Konami. So it is often just referred to by us British gamers as a hit Konami game from the SNES days. It was actually created by Masaya the software division of a company called NCS which stands for Nippon Computer Systems. They have made and published quite a few games but not many which have been big over here, so in this case the Konami name was probably a huge boost to Cybernators sales.
Now robots and mecha suits were supper popular when this game came out, a whole generation of kids had grown up on transformers and go bots and had started moving in to the more anime related shows involving robots and battle armour. So I remember this game being treated as if it was a dream come true by most of the people I knew.
Ok so I will give a brief version of the plot. The game takes place in the future, a future where Earth's fossil fuels have begun to run out. A large scale war has begun for control of the remaining resources, and for territory including ownership of the moon. The two warring governments, the Axis and Federation are both very advanced, advanced to the point where they have the technology at their disposal not only to go into space but also to create giant space stations and orbital weapons platforms. You play a soldier who pilots a Federation Assault Suit (The Cybernator of the title). The Assault Suit has a bulky humanoid shape and is equipped with a variety of weapons. Your main mission is to destroy the most power mech in the Axis army’s forced it is called Bildvorg.
I can’t be certain but I don’t think the story changed that much between the original Japanese version and our version Cybernator but I do know that there was some degree of censorship, for one a suicide scene was removed.
My first impression of the game was that it had pretty good graphics a well-fitting soundtrack but that it was a darn difficult game. I know that this put a few friends off of the game but I don’t think it is ridiculously hard, it’s one of those games that feels tough but rewarding. Every time you have another go you seem to get a better feel for it and more of an idea of how best to face its challenges. The more you look at the game though the deeper you realise the graphical touches run, there is a lot of destroyable scenery and it just has such good atmosphere it really pulls you in to the sci fi world it supplies. The controls do take some getting used to I will admit, but once they click with you they click. The mech, movement might surprise some who come here expecting Conta, these mechs are powerful, but heavy. So it’s a slightly slower game which is more likely to be won through tactical shooting as opposed to blipping all over the screen gunstar heroes style. Can’t see anyone going as far as having the music from the game on their MP3 player or anything but it does fit the game really well.
You have to remember that with some of these old games you don’t have passwords or save states so this adds to the challenge it means you need to devote the time to one sitting this bad boy, either that or you’re going to have to keep your SNES plugged in and keep coming back to it praying no one has banged the console
Part of the reason I have chosen to review Cybernator now is because it is being released on the Wii u’s virtual console and for the price they are asking I think the game is a good buy. So what would I rate it well I guess I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10. If you wanted to play this on the Snes though what would it cost you? Well I have had my copy so long I can’t remember what I paid for it or where I got it from but having a look online you’re doing well if you can get a cart for about 10 quid and if you look around sometimes you can get a boxed copy for about 20. Personally I’d go for a cart but it depends on how much you have and how you want to play it/keep it.