The Legend of Steel Empire Review: Steampunk to the Future in This HD Remaster

The nice thing about the Shmup genre is that, in most cases, they’re an incredibly quick burn. After spending an hour or two with most of them, you’ll be done with the main arc of the game. What’s nice is when they provide reasons to return. It’s even better when they’re a HD remaster. And wouldn’t you know it, The Legend of Steel Empire fulfills both conditions adeptly. Originally released on Sega Mega Drive in the States, and later arriving on PC and GBA, today we’re checking out what’s decidedly the best version of the game. Keep reading to discover why this classic adventure still holds up quite well.

Fan the Flames of War

Though you usually aren’t playing a Shmup for the story, at least The Legend of Steel Empire makes an effort. The Steampunk adventure is all about fighting back against the Motorhead Empire. You’re a pilot for the Republic of Silverhead, and all that stands between Motorhead and total subjugation of the world. There’s plenty of strategy briefings at the start of chapters laying out the stakes, but that’s pretty much it. There’s not much in the way of characters, just good rebels versus the big bad empire. Which is fine, since the reason you’re playing most games like this is for the gameplay, and The Legend of Steel Empire is pretty solid.

One of my favorite things about the game is that your ships can fire both front and back at a moment’s notice. You don’t need any upgrade to unlock this, it’s a core feature of the combat. Which is great, since I get very irritated in other games when I’m hit behind my ship by something I can’t attack. On the downside, this means you’ll be regularly fighting off waves of foes from both in front and behind you, not to mention from above or below. Though a 360 degree range of combat is intense, it’s handled relatively fairly, and I found the game pretty well balanced on the Normal difficulty.

That said, it wouldn’t be a Shmup without upgrades. Though you can upgrade your weapon level, it goes from 1 – 20, and I honestly stopped noticing a difference once I was around level 5 or so. That said, upgrades boost the frequency and width of your shot, as well as adding two little drones that support you with covering fire. You can also pick up cash to boost your score at the end of stages (which honestly felt pretty underwhelming) as well as recovering health. That’s pretty rare in the genre, and very helpful. You can actually take several shots before you go down in flames. Also, there’s two different ships you can choose between, but they’re pretty much identical in terms of firepower, and even have the same screen clearing bomb. The key difference is the one ship is slower and studier, but otherwise I noticed no real differences.

Dark Mines to Space Itself

The game itself is split between 7 stages, and does a good job of ramping things up gradually. The bosses are all tough and spew plenty of projectiles your way, as well as moving back and forth across the screen, forcing you to get out of the way or explode. Though I enjoyed the challenge of the bosses, I would be lying to say any of them are particularly memorable, other than the final boss who attacks you across an entire stage in different combat waves. The stages themselves are far more interesting, having you navigate darkened mines full of debris, assaulting flying castles and even catapulting into the void of space.

Howl’s Crying Castle

Visually the game really does look nice, and it’s full of intricate little details. The Steampunk style speaks to every aspect of the game, as many of the enemies are old timey looking flying robots and blimps of death. Musically the game is pretty enjoyable, and reminds me of an old wartime newsreel married with SNES-inspired music. Put together, it’s certainly a cohesive albeit unique package.

Though you can get through The Legend of Steel Empire in a couple hours or less, there’s some reason to return. For one thing, by fulfilling achievements you’ll reveal a grand mosaic image. I got several after beating the game, though there’s several I’m hesitant to unlock, such as beating the game on Hard or Very Hard. Beating the game also unlocks a tutorial mode where you can play stages with full power from the get go, as well as increasing the number of lives you can play with.

Don’t Scorch Me…

I have very few complaints to make about the game, though here’s a few notes. While the game is enjoyable and stands out from its peers, I can’t help but wish there was something like branching paths in stages, not to mention more memorable bosses. Of more consequence is the localization, which has some very noticeable misspellings and poor grammar choices.

For the Glory of Silverhead!

Despite a few small annoyances, I enjoyed my time with The Legend of Steel Empire. It’s a challenging Steampunk Shmup with HD graphics and quirky music. Fans of the genre really have no reason not to check it out now that it’s available on Nintendo Switch.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PS4 (coming later); Publisher: ININ; Developer: mebius, Starfish SD; Players: 1; Released: January 23, 2024; ESRB: Everyone 10+ – Fantasy Violence; MSRP: $24.99 (digital), $29.99 (Strictly Limited Games)

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.