Trauma not included.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Color Dreams
DEVELOPER: Sachen
GENRE: Action
RELEASE DATE: 1990
Two breeds of Color Dreams’ games exist: the wicked and the weird. Silent Assault was only published by Color Dreams (Sachen did the developing honors), but it still manages to mix their trademark styles into a mutt concoction of nonsensical story line, generic gameplay, and graphics painted by troubled kindergartners. The Earth military (one-world government so soon?!) has been possessed by an evil alien force. Only you, the best soldier in the world who happens to be unpossessable, can take them down. Your lone weapon is bullets that look like knives, but they pack a wallop; every human or alien that tries to stop you will die from just a couple sharpened flesh-piercers. Collect the tasty, courageous hearts that enemies drop to restore your life, and the Atoms that give you brief invincibility. For an action game, though, Silent Assault provides little action. Enemies are sporadic and sparse, and there are no power-ups for your weapon. What distinguishes Silent Assault from its 8-bit action brethren is its insane color palette. Not one aspect of any level – not buildings, enemies, or our beloved warmonger protagonist – is colored properly. Thanks to this lack of skill, Silent Assault gains a surreal charm that saves it from being yet another Color Dreams-related mishap. The seven levels offered are quickly conquered (plan to spend about forty-five minutes playing through the game), especially if you’ve played tougher action titles like Contra or… anything really. For most games, brevity would be a weakness, but it works to Silent Assault‘s advantage. The less time one spends with the game, the more one appreciates it.
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5 replies on “#567 – Silent Assault”
I was playing NES rom roulette a bit ago and this game came up. Pretty crappy Contra rip-off but just…weird as heck. Especially when you start running through an amusement park and your end boss is…a giant head on a shoe? Wut?
Another unlicensed game, correct? Never heard of it!
I think I enjoy the reviews for unlicensed games the most. There seems to be more at stake–will the ‘bastard’ prove to be worth the developer’s effort? Will it help or hurt their legacy? Silent Assault appears to have enough qualities to keep it from the pile of rubbish that are many unlicensed games.
Yup, unlicensed. Unlicensed reviews are usually fun to write and painful to experience. Glad you enjoy them!
Too bad Sachen (a Taiwanese company) wasn’t able to carve it’s own place in the already crowded game development market. Their games aren’t that bad. Had Sachen tried to meet the higher standards of other publishers instead of going with Color Dreams they might have been capable of producing pretty good games.
Sachen has some interesting games. I too wish they’d been given more of a chance back in the day.