ASSAULT SHELL
Pilot the insanity fighter "Assault Shell" and shoot down the enemy down to pieces!
Select from 4 different variations, the powerhouse ALPHA, the high-ranged BETA, the stonewall GAMMA, and the melee master DELTA! Charge up your hyper meter to unleash a powerful hyper mode, but charge it up again to unleash the insanity system BLANK STAND, which not only makes you even stronger, but damages the enemy’s sanity and turns them insane, making them harder to fight. Use the risk vs reward system effectively in order to score high and destroy efficiently!
Story
Amber Black, a military faction based in the Asian Continent, has their influence all across the southern hemisphere, and has begun taking over other private military companies and factions. However, their rival JOKER will not stand for this. After a gap in their jump gate defensive system due to the Enemy Black operation, JOKER begins their mission to take down Amber Black once and for all. Take to the skies, JOKER unit no.233487, and destroy Amber Black’s ambition.
Blast through 5 stages and eradicate all of the large and epic bosses Amber Black has to throw at you! Will you survive the mission?
Game Discussion
Steam User 3
Do you like a good Hyper System? Or even better... a well-crafted and finely-tuned Double Break? Then Assault Shell is for you. Except it doesn't quite end there. And that's because Assault Shell has taken upon itself to grace us with the fabled... *drum rolls*... TRIPLE BREAK!!!~
Before I get to that though, let's first deal with the enormous elephant in the room: this game's visuals. Don't trust the screenshots, and don't trust the videos. Sure, it looks rough around the edges; I even joked with my hubby that the entire game was probably drawn in MS Paint. That said though, Assault Shell possesses an extremely distinct visual charm; and it only makes sense once you start to actually play the game for yourself. The graphics are extremely, and I mean, EXTREMELY crisp, pure, and direct. There is never ever any doubt with respect to what you're seeing on the screen.
This is a quality which ultimately trumps everything else in an STG: visual clarity. And what Assault Shell does insanely well is that it takes this MS Paint charm and injects a healthy dose of Holy Water into it. What you're left with is what I like to call: functional beauty.
Even if you're somehow not sold on this game's visuals, Assault Shell still has a lot to offer; not only does its soundtrack somehow match its illustrations perfectly, its heavily synthesized sound effects also feel right at home with the rest of the package. I'll admit: I've got a huge soft-spot for very electronic and robotic sounding voice cues in STG's, but in Assault Shell it's a match made in heaven when put up against the spectacle of this game's presentation. Yes, it appears rough. Almost everything about Assault Shell looks and sounds rough; but that is obviously an intended vision.
What is not rough however is how this game feels. Sure, in the "quintessential doujinsoft jank"-department the key binding menu is barely functional; but once you're past that your ship controls are sublime. Sharp, precise, and you'll always be exactly where you want to be.
But what I love most about Assault Shell is the flawless execution of its Hyper System. It pretty much copies Crimzon Clover's system in that you have a Hyper Gauge with both a main and sub-gauge. Once your main gauge is full, all excess energy fills the sub-gauge; and when you activate Break (named "Hyper Stand" in this game) the sub-gauge gets transferred into the main gauge, and when that's finally full you're given the option to activate Double Break (or "Blank Stand"). It's a pleasantly elegant solution which frankly doesn't need more faffing about.
Or so you'd normally think. Assault Shell has a mode called Void Arrange, with the biggest change being the introduction of Triple Break ("Void Stand"). If you manage to fill up your main gauge a third time before the expiration of Blank Stand, you'll be able to trigger insanity.
Void Stand is just pure adrenalin. And the doubling of your damage over Blank Stand isn't even why; it's how its presented. How it feels. Not only does Void Stand darken your entire screen with a purple hue, all enemy bullets are brightened up and heavily contrasted against the rest of the display. It's like the game puts you into a hyper focus mode, and for good reason. Despite your increased firepower, enemies get really, REALLY angry when you're in Void Stand. Bullet patterns get ridiculously tight, and it also causes your rank meter to fill up which introduces even more bullets.
But the one detail which really makes me cry with joy is that if you manage to push your rank up sufficiently high before a boss fight, the boss will be introduced with a different "high rank" soundtrack... and that is when you know @#$% is about to get real.
This kind of attention to detail should dispel any notion that this game is "rough."
In addition to Void Arrange you've also got three other game modes to muck around with: Original Single runs you through a single loop of the game at regular difficulty, Original Full unlocks the harder double-loop experience, and Light Mode is available for beginners.
All-in-all it took me about five hours to clear Original Single and Original Full, and another three to clear Void Arrange (and only because I was too addicted with pushing the rank up all the way into the stratosphere). Assault Shell is not a difficult game, and I'll even go out of my way to say that this is probably the easiest 2-ALL in all of STG history (I cleared it in one attempt). Critically however: this is an insanely fun STG with a huge amount of replay value just because of how ludicrous Void Stand is. Assault Shell proves that you *can* have an absolute blast with an easier STG.
My only major complaint is that absolutely all Steam Achievements in this game are broken with no fix in sight; although someone has claimed that the developer intends on dealing with this once Assault Shell 2 has launched. Communication does go a long way however.
With all that said though: I highly recommend this game. It's a hidden gem which deserves a LOT more attention, and I wish the developer all the best.
Thank you so much for this experience!~
<3
Steam User 1
Achievements don’t work, score doesn’t save sometimes, sequel looks to be in purgatory………….and it doesn’t matter. One of the most fun shmups I’ve ever played and one of my most cherished 1ccs. The flow state this game gets you into is second to none. Highly recommend.