Steel Empire



A Shoot'Em Up title for the Sega Genesis (Megadrive), later remade for the Gameboy Advance.

Set in what one promotional flyer called "A future that might have been", where everything is run by steam but far more advanced technologically in some ways, the story begins with the evil General Sauron staging a military coup in the Motorhead Empire (read: World War II Germany). After a few years of war he has conquered nearly every neighboring country, save for one, the Republic of Silverhead which continues to resist.

Now both have developed their respective superweapons: the Silverhead have the "lightning bomb", a weapon that summon storms. The Motorhead have built some other, more secret weapon called the Lunanaught, eventually revealed to be a spaceship Sauron plans to launch into orbit to bombard Silverhead unchallenged. To prevent this, the Silverheads have launched a pair of prototype aircraft--a heavy fighter-cum-zeppelin, and a nimble ornithropter fighter with armor piercing missiles--armed with lightning bombs to prevent the completion of the Lunanaught. If they succeed, the war will be over...if they fail, Sauron will conquer the world. Guess who gets to pilot it...

Steel Empire, also known uninventively as "Empire of Steel" in Europe, was released in the early 90s for the Genesis/Megadrive and was later remade and remastered with some new graphics and sprites for the GBA. In between missions, and at the beginning and end, the story is displayed in sepia-tone film screens and the whole thing is given the feel of a pulp serial from the forties or fifties. Basically it's Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow in video game form, about twenty years early. Surprsingly, remakes aside, Steel Empire never had a sequel.


 * Airborne Aircraft Carrier: the primary means of warfare in the "Age of Steel" is by way of antigravity warships the size of aircraft carriers, launching fighters and bombers.
 * Alternate History: it is, ostensibly, The Future. But a future where technology paradoxically both more advanced, in function, and less sophisticated in appearance. Spaceships powered by steam, Anti Gravity ships with wooden hulls and Energy Weapons fitted on crude rocket-fighters, for example.
 * Attack Drone: Averted; the Motorhead forces are manned bi-planes and jets. Despite the fact you kill thousands, they have more.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Remember how the intro said that your key to victory over the Motorheads would be your lightning bombs? Well, the Final Boss does a COMPLETELY UNAVOIDABLE attack once it's low on health and will keep on spamming it with increasing intensity... but wait! Your Lightning Bombs give you temporary invulnerability while damaging him...
 * Well, it's not COMPLETELY unavoidable -- the asteroids floating through the screen on the Genesis give you temporary shelter from the walls of fire, while your increased firepower and helper drones lets you continue to attack. Of course, if you died on on this level, things become much dicier, since you lose your upgrade firepower and helper drones.
 * Continuing Is Painful: While dying doesn't set you back to a checkpoint, it does remove your outrigger planes, and if you use a continue, you just get sent back to the start of the half of the level you game-overed in (keeping all the experience item counters you collected). The Game Boy Advance remake, however, raises this up a bit by also dropping your firepower back down to level 1 on death while resetting your lightning bomb counter.
 * Cool Plane: The ornithopter. The Zeppelin might as well be one, given it's maneuverability and firepower.
 * Deadly Walls: Touching walls makes you lose health.
 * Death Course: The second level, where you ship has to outfly a collapsing cavern while avoiding the terrain on the way.
 * Doomed Hometown: The carrier ship that you start out in (and return to refuel for the first few levels) gets taken down by one of the Motorheads' giant airships. You get your revenge by blowing up two of them!
 * The Empire: the Motorhead Empire, a brutal imperialistic state which is out to conquer its neighbors. Never outright stated, but basically implied to be coeval with WWII Germany.
 * The Federation: your side, the Republic of Silverhead. Basically the British Empire, if the comparison between the two states holds.
 * Military Mashup Machine: a zeppelin-fighter-bomber, or a zeppelin-airship-submarine, or a winged ornithroper fighter, among others.
 * Mook Maker: The aircraft that drops tanks in stage 1, Tank/hovercraft bunkers, the giant airship boss(es), etc.
 * Names to Run Away From: Gee I wonder if a guy named Sauron is evil?
 * President Evil: General Sauron, ruler of the Motorheads.
 * Raygun Gothic: This game, full stop.
 * Redshirt Army: The Motorheads seem to succeed in their conquests because they have 100 to 1 odds, since they go down like Thai hookers when you show up.
 * Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: One part of the second stage has loads of boulders falling on your character, and it gets very irritating...
 * Schizo-Tech: The Age of Steel includes steam powered space ships, flying vessels, guided Buzz Bomb-like missiles, and energy weapons. Otherwise it appears to be little changed from the early twentieth century.
 * Smart Bomb: the Silverheads' new weapon, the Lightning Bomb, is a missile that summons targeted energy blasts from space... somehow.
 * The Swarm: the Motorhead fleet's primary method of attack. They send fighters and airships by the thousands to swarm their enemies.
 * Zeppelins from Another World: by the bus load; the primary means of warfare and travel in the Age of Steel.