Line #20 VideoGame/SteelEmpire


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-Steel_empire_front_758.jpg]]
2
3	A ShootEmUp title developed by Hot-B and released in 1992 for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis (Mega Drive), later remade for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance and UsefulNotes/WiiU.
4
5	Set in what one promotional flyer called "A future that might have been", where [[SteamPunk everything is run by steam]] but far more advanced technologically in some ways, the story begins with the evil [[PresidentEvil General]] [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]] staging a military coup in the [[TheEmpire Motorhead Empire]] (read: World War II Germany). After a few years of war he has conquered nearly every neighboring country, save for one, the [[TheFederation Republic of Silverhead]] which continues to resist.
6
7	Now both have developed their respective superweapons: the Silverhead have the [[WaveMotionGun "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 [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld 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. [[AnAdventurerIsYou Guess who gets to pilot it...]]
8
9	Steel Empire, also known uninventively as ''Kotetsu Teikoku'' (鋼鉄帝国) in Japan and ''Empire of Steel'' in Europe, was released in the early 90s for the Genesis/Mega Drive and was later remade and remastered with some new graphics and sprites for the Game Boy Advance and later the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}. 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 ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' in video game form, about twenty years early. Surprisingly, remakes aside, Steel Empire never had a sequel.
10
11	----
12	!!This game includes the following tropes:
13
14	* AirborneAircraftCarrier: 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.
15	* AlternateHistory: it is, ostensibly, TheFuture. [[SteamPunk But a future where technology]] [[SchizoTech paradoxically both more advanced, in function, and less sophisticated in appearance.]] [[CoolStarship Spaceships powered by steam]], AntiGravity ships with wooden hulls and [[EnergyWeapon Energy Weapons]] fitted on crude rocket-fighters, for example.
16	* AttackDrone: Averted; the Motorhead forces are manned bi-planes and jets. Despite the fact you kill thousands, [[WeHaveReserves they have more]].
17	* AttackItsWeakPoint: Many of the bosses are like this. One of them requires you to stay near the top of the screen so it lifts its cannon up- the cannon itself is invulnerable, but the cannon stands aren't.
18	* BattleshipRaid: The third boss. Interestingly enough, you fight it in a very similar fashion to the battleship from ''VideoGame/RType''
19	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Your character (a steampunk plane/blimp) goes up to space to face the final boss. One must wonder how you can stay up for so long without the proper technology...
20	* BossOnlyLevel: The final level takes place against the final boss and its ''[[SequentialBoss multitude]]'' of forms.
21	* ChekhovsGun: Remember how the intro said that your key to victory over the Motorheads would be your [[SmartBomb lightning bombs]]? Well, the FinalBoss does a [[ThatOneAttack 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...
22	** 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.
23	* ContinuingIsPainful: 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.
24	* CoolPlane: The ornithopter. The [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld Zeppelin]] might as well be one, given it's maneuverability and firepower.
25	* CorridorCubbyholeRun: The FinalBoss has an attack like this, where it shoots out near-unavoidable waves of fire. You have to hide directly behind the asteroids to avoid it.
26	* DeadlyWalls: Touching walls makes you lose health.
27	* DeathCourse: The second level, where you ship has to outfly a collapsing cavern while avoiding the [[DeadlyWalls terrain]] on the way.
28	* DoomedHometown: The carrier ship that you start out in (and return to refuel for the first few levels), the ''Rheinhalt'', gets taken down by one of the Motorheads' giant airships. You get your revenge by blowing up ''two'' of them!
29	* TheEmpire: 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.
30	* TheFederation: your side, the Republic of Silverhead. Basically the British Empire, if the comparison between the two states holds.
31	* MarathonBoss: The FinalBoss has ''several'' phases, the very last section of which has no less than 5 (where it changes its attack pattern per phase). Taken even further in the 3DS remake, which adds even more phases to it.
32	* MilitaryMashupMachine: a zeppelin-fighter-bomber, or a zeppelin-airship-submarine, or a winged ornithroper fighter, among others.
33	* MookMaker: The aircraft that drops tanks in stage 1, Tank/hovercraft bunkers, the giant airship boss(es), etc.
34	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gee I wonder if a guy named Sauron is evil?]]
35	* NintendoHard
36	* NoDamageRun: Beating a level without taking any damage (very difficult) gives you a large score bonus.
37	* PintsizedPowerhouse: The FinalBoss is the smallest boss in the game compared to the behemoths you've faced, and it has much more health and firepower than any of them.
38	* PresidentEvil: General Sauron, ruler of the Motorheads.
39	* RaygunGothic: This game, full stop.
40	* RecurringBoss: Lots. Many of the minibosses return later as minibosses, the first boss (the train) appears again as the third-to-last boss, and the ocean stage's miniboss appears as the second-to-last boss.
41	* RedShirtArmy: 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.
42	* RocksFallEveryoneDies: One part of the second stage has loads of boulders falling on your character, and it gets very irritating...
43	* SchizoTech: 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.
44	* ShoutOut: The third boss (especially its weak point) is more than a passing resemblance to the airborne battleship from ''VideoGame/RType''.
45	* SmartBomb: the Silverheads' new weapon, the Lightning Bomb, is a missile that summons targeted energy blasts from space... somehow.
46	* TheSwarm: the Motorhead fleet's primary method of attack. They send fighters and airships by the thousands to swarm their enemies.
47	* VideoGameRemake: The 3DS version, which has several of the bosses, levels, and enemies modified.
48	* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: by the bus load; the primary means of warfare and travel in the Age of Steel.

Context VideoGame / SteelEmpire