Assault

About Assault

Assault (1988) is Namco's twin-stick tank shooter, one of the first Namco System 2 games, whose map scales and rotates around a self-propelled gun designed by Gundam artist Kunio Okawara.

Assault in Depth

In 2199 Earth reaches its maximum population, and humans venture across the galaxy for new worlds. The pioneer ship Pilot 1, carrying 3,000 personnel, finds a planet 35,000 light years away, and the humans enslave its natives; the protagonist, one of those natives, vows to drive them out and bring peace. In a caterpillar-tracked self-propelled gun, the player fights through eleven stages of desert, mechanical base, forest and river, destroying enemies and avoiding projectiles, some of which can be shot down while others must be dodged. A flashing arrow points to the exit, and each stage ends with a large mechanical structure to defeat.

As in Battlezone, two joysticks drive the tank: both forward to advance, both back to reverse and one at a time to turn. Pushing both left or right performs rapid rolls, which can also flip the tank to squeeze through narrow gaps, and pushing them apart performs a Power Wheelie that fires powerful grenades. Lift zones, usable a limited number of times, push the tank high into the air, zooming the view out so it can attack at long range while safe from enemy fire, and Jump Pads catapult it skywards to blast targets on the ground and see other parts of the map. The map rotates around the player, who stays at the centre of the screen.

Making Assault

Namco developed and published it for arcades in 1988, with Atari Games releasing it in North America, as one of the first games on the Namco System 2 hardware, capable of sprite scaling and rotation. Critics praised its graphics, controls and use of sprite scaling, Commodore User's Nick Kelly being impressed by its technical capabilities.