Super Trench Attack
by Retro Army
Vitals:
- Top Down Shoot'em Up
- Worth the price ($4.99)
- Approx. 6 hour playtime
- Low replay value
It’s a pixelesque day on Pebble
Beach. Green Star soldiers relax on the sand, drinking soda while their tin pan
helmets shade and likely chaff their scalps. Out past the surf and sea-mines seagulls
call their affections to each other. Suddenly the menacing armada of the
questionably competent Black Army appears on the horizon. Within moments the
beach is overrun, Green Star soldiers are run up flagpoles by their underwear,
bunkers are defaced with anti-Green Star propaganda and ice cream cones are brutally
smashed and left to melt under the onslaught of the blazing sun. And so a war
begins for the survival of the Green Star Nation and with it the journey of one
unlikely, possibly immortal, butt chinned pornography connoisseur.
The
world of Super Trench Attack is wonderfully conceived. Even in the darkest
moments of warfare humor and absurdity rule the land. It’s clear that the
developers went out of their way to make the characters and plot ridiculous in
every way they could. The result is a lighthearted romp through the trenches
and battlefields of a conflict which clearly draws inspiration from our own
World Wars.
Our hero unabashedly celebrates his success
The
majority of the gameplay involves shooting your way across beaches, fields and
towns to complete specific objectives such as clearing bunkers, blowing up
tanks or repeatedly rescuing the Green Star Armies highly skilled spy and
master of disguise. The lighthearted feel that makes the game is present even
in simple shootouts, scoring a foot shot will sometimes cause an enemy soldier to
drop his pants stunning him for a moment; enemies killed with grenades or
explosive barrels will be reduced to ash in classic ACME style. Unfortunately
the basic game mechanic quickly wears thin. With a few
rare exceptions enemies are identical in tactics and armaments, only changing
their physical appearance and overall life total. The player is given the
opportunity to purchase upgrades and perks unfortunately this only ever keeps
them up to pace in an arms race to equivalency and new combat or game-play
mechanics are never introduced. The challenge doesn't really increase either since throughout the game death results only in a silly interlude before
the player is returned to their tent in camp with the option to immediately
teleport to the most recent checkpoint. Upon returning to the front-lines they
will find that none of the enemies have re-spawned and they are free to casually
stroll back to where they died and continue the fight. By the end of the game being killed is little more than an annoyance and one wonders why death or
health packs are even included in the game at all.
You may be outnumbered but you're also immortal so things kinda balance out
The boss fights are disappointing
as well. There are a few active and engaging battles against large mechanized
machines of war that are somewhat reminiscent of Metal Slug bosses, only here
they’re top down instead of side scrolling. Unfortunately these are far
outnumbered by the amount of shooting galleries that pass themselves off as
boss fights, stationary point and click to win events that seem like something
off a banner ad. After surviving an exciting battle against a giant mechanized
submarine each one of these trials winds up feeling like a lazy slobber in the
eye.
It was better with the Light Gun
Super
Trench Attack is an enjoyable game even if only because of the absurdity of the
world and the characters in it. Most game-play mechanics are amusing but tire
quickly and won’t hold much, if any, entertainment value after the first,
approximately 6 hour, play through. However the game is available for $4.99 on
Steam so despite its shortcomings it definitely ranks as a title that’s worth
its price.
I like turtles!
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