Is Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute a pretty fine game? Yes, it is. Is it pretty damned hard? Why yes, yes it is.
Ethical disclaimer: This review is based on code provided to me by the publisher. That gets it reviewed, nothing more. They have had no input into this review, which is as it should be. Once again, yeah, I know that disclosure isn’t sexy or what you want to read upfront, but it’s important.
For more on ART’s ethics/disclosure policy, see here.
In Retro Game Of The Week I pull a game from my collection and write about why it’s important or interesting. Or in some cases, badly dated and rubbish.
Many years ago – OK, honestly, this was last century, and just writing that makes me feel truly ancient – I was obsessed with a game that I knew as Cybernator.
Cybernator is a mech-based action shooting game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and while my own financial circumstances meant I couldn’t afford to own a copy, it was in pretty regular rental rotation from the local Video Ezy back in the day.
Yes, we used to rent video games from these things called video stores, kids. Ask your parents… though the way that games are delivered digitally but you don’t “own” them today isn’t arguably that different, though I digress…
Do I own a copy of Cybernator now? Why yes, I do (it’s this one above, precisely!) and I view its rental stickers as part of its provenance – a glance back to a different time in gaming.
They enhance it in my view. Yours may differ.
What I didn’t know at the time was that Cybernator was the western name for Assault Suits Valken, the second game in the Assault Suit series after Assualt Suit Leynos, released here as Target Earth.
Truly, the early 90s were a terrible time for both box art and game name translations, but there I go digressing again.
Cybernator never had a sequel, and it would be many years before I would return to the Assault Suit series, which shifted to 32 bit platforms with Assault Suit Leynos 2 on the Sega Saturn in 1997 in Japan only.
That was until Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute, which as the name suggests, is that exact game re-released for modern platforms with a host of updates including a full English translation.
Either the translators are big fans of Steiner Math, or this game PREDICTED THE FUTURE given when it came out. I’m betting it’s the former, and this text was different in the original Japanese.
That’s quite a welcome step, because while Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute is still at its core a run-and-gun mech game of the classic style, it is very text heavy thanks to its considerably lift in complexity around quite how you equip your mech for each mission.
Complex problems call for… a complete collapse in military discipline. I’m sure that will help.
Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute isn’t a terribly long game, but it did take me by surprise when I first started playing it. Coming from that familiar Cybernator/Assualt Suits Valken background I figured I’d have a leg up in how this would play out… and I was dead wrong, quickly followed by simply being dead.
The Assault Suits vs the town of North Haverbrook.
While Cybernator eases you into the game, Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute is by itself quite unforgiving, from its limited ammo to the swarms of enemies that attack you every step of the way.
I am running low on ammo. It is… not going well for me.
Just wrapping my head around the buttons and their functions took a while, even with an embedded game manual available at the tap of a button.
The controls don’t seem that complex… until you’re trying to remember them in the heat of battle.
It does all eventually make sense, but it’s most definitely wrapped in a game design ethos that wanted gamers to get up to speed with a game by way of constant repetition, failure and hopefully getting just-that-little-bit better each time they try.
Even if you do finish a level, don’t expect to get a good mission score for it.
Or a score at all in some cases.
In 2025, will a lot of gamers have the patience for that? I’m not 100% sure that everyone will, especially on one particular level later in the game that involves defending a tanker from enemy attack. Let’s just say that if I did in fact have any hair left, I wouldn’t have any after that level.
The temptation to blow it up myself is REAL and STRONG.
You do get some modern niceties like rewind features and a series of optional boosts to your mech’s armour and energy consumption that do help to take the sharpest edge off the game’s difficulty. It’s still plenty pointy with them in place, however.
Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute is one of those classic retro games that didn’t give a damn if you thought it was too hard, and it’ll best suit gamers who like that style of challenge. Visually it’s an absolute treat, with plenty of chunky pixellated mechs, weapons and backgrounds zooming around at high speed to accentuate the very real feeling of danger that permeates every second of this game.
So many weapons to equip on your mech of choice — and finishing missions helps you unlock even more.
I had assumed that one of the reasons that Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute was released would be down to it being a more expensive retro title as (sigh) so many of them are now, but it’s actually not that pricey to get if you did still have a Sega Saturn in decent working condition.
If you don’t and fancy some old school mech blasting action, Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute could be just what you’ve been waiting for.
Just don’t assume it’s quite as novice-friendly as Cybernator was back in the day.
She lies. It’s actually tougher.
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