Steel Assault resurfaced with a Steam trailer and it looks absurdly good

The long wait for this action-platformer should be worth it

I haven’t thought about Steel Assault in years, but the whip-cracking action-platformer is back and better than ever. The developer, Zenovia, posted a new trailer today ahead of the game’s Steam launch.

It’s so cool – so wonderfully chaotic yet smooth – that I felt compelled to watch the trailer multiple times. I said “holy shit.” If you have a soft spot for Contra, Bionic Commando, Mega Man Zero, and anything else on that general mood board, you’ll want to wishlist Steel Assault before you forget.

My two at-a-glance, I-gotta-get-going takeaways for busy readers: there’s a grapple-hook/zipline mechanic (and it looks fresh as hell), and this isn’t a metroidvania. “No aimless wandering, straight-line corridors, or design-by-algorithm,” notes Zenovia. “Just hand-crafted stage-based action.”

When’s it launching? For now, “2020.” The team shared a status update today on Kickstarter.

“There’s still lots of stuff even in the clips shown that will need to be polished and unified on the way to release, but I think they are both more than good enough for the time being,” said designer Sri Kankanahalli. “So, marketing time is over, and back to work we go; we’ll keep you posted.”