The SNES was a system which was lucky enough to enjoy amazing support from the best publishers and developers of its era, and one of the console's best third-party releases is set to stomp its way to the North American Virtual Console tomorrow.
Cybernator — also known as Assault Suit Valken in Japan — was launched by Konami way back in 1993, although the Japanese release was handled by Masaya and the game itself was developed by NCS.
It is part of the wider Assault Suit series, which includes Assault Suit Leynos on the Mega Drive / Genesis (released as Target Earth in the US) and Assault Suits Leynos 2 on the Sega Saturn, a title which shares the visual style of the SNES game but never saw the light of day outside of Japan.
Clearly influenced by Japanese mecha series like Mobile Suit Gundam, Cybernator features massive, hulking robots and some particularly impressive set-pieces. Even by today's standards, it's something of a gem — which is why you'll want to download it to your Wii U with as little hesitation as possible when it goes on sale tomorrow for $7.99.
Will you see sense and pick this up, or is it not your kind of thing? Share a comment to let us know how you feel.
[source nintendo.com]
Comments 61
SWEET this is great news!! I kept putting off getting the original cart for so long for some reason. I should get on that.
Hope its released in Europe soon.
It is totally my kind of thing. I want to finish Armoured Hunter Gunhound EX on Steam though first though before I get it. (Its easier to find footage of the PSP version of it but its heavily influenced by Cybernator).
Ah cool, another Konami game I want coming to the VC
Hopefully Sparkster and Parodius are on the way at some point too.
So.... no Mega Man? I suppose it's -possible- that NOA releases two games, but I'm not holding my breath.
A good week for NA. I'm hoping there will be a surprise for EU tomorrow, but my glass is currenly half empty
@speedyboris It would be 3 - This and Super Mario Kart are already confirmed.
@unrandomsam "Super Mario Kart" was released today.
@ToxieDogg don't forget Axelay
@baba_944 Ah ok. I suppose there is hope then they will stopped messing around at some point.
Looks a bit like Metal Warriors? Is it remotely similar?
i wil wait for the reviews
@Jim_Purcell
Hmmm... considering both games were made by Konami, I say yes they are similar.
I wonder what Mega Man game were getting?
@retro_player_22 I just recall that Metal Warriors was developed by Lucasarts. I don't think Cybernator was.
@retro_player_22 Both published by Konami in the USA. Cybernator is NCS (And not even published by Konami in Japan).
This is one of my favorite games of all time.
@unrandomsam When Konami published the game (Cybernator) in NA, they wanted to make a sequel to Cybernator but doesn't have the rights (NCS probably prevent that) so instead they decided to have LucasArts developed a similar game with Cybernator's gameplay and gave it a different title.
@retro_player_22 Okay, that makes some sense.
"and one of the console's best third-party releases" Uh, no. Other then disagreeing with that comment, its still a pretty good game. I will get this eventually and retire my CIB copy.
I've never heard of this before. I think I will wait until some reviews surface before I make my decision.
Another game that I downloaded years ago in my Wii.
How about a Superman 64 port
I remember this being great, but TOUGH!
Super Mario Kart and now this?! It's as if Nintendo actually cares about the Virtual Console!
@JakeShapiro I was expecting this week to just be Mega Man 5 for Wii U VC (5 because it's already on Wii VC), turns out there's more (and maybe a different Mega Man game).
What? We get actually get more than 1 VC title... let alone two of them will be decent ones?
to answer the question this is not my kind of thing
sure hoping you bring those TG16 games over soon Konami...
Blasting lots of things as a giant robot, eh? SOLD. I don't know how I've never played this before.
Still gonna be a MM game come out, which is why MK came out. This way, Nintendo's hoping MK can grab some of the MK8 hype, without cannibalizing the other two games' sales.
With no retail releases and a bunch of indie delays, this is the perfect time for a host of new and exciting VC content!
Cybernator being my pick of the litter, but I'm sure any one of them is well worth the cost.
i would love to see sunset riders,frogger, super cobra, gyruss, lethal enforcers, time pilot, sparkster,axelay , and yea we need those TG16 games over here that japan already has!! c'mon konami!!
Wooow. awesome! so many good memories! i was trully adiccted to this game back that time!
OMG! This is fantastic. Been trying to remember the name of this game for years. so excited!!!!
This is great. Also does anyone know the name of that old NES game that was about a mech that could control gravity? I believe it was developed by Irem.
Still would rather have Twin Bee
I'm not sold. What kind of game is it exactly? Side-scroller shooter, ala Contra? Strategy, like Front Mission? Is the game even good, and not just rare?
@brandonbwii: MetalStorm, picked up a CIB copy a couple years ago. Good luck finding a a good price for a copy nowadays. though
@argh4430 : yes this game is good.
Finally I game I can play on the WiiU (I own 16 retail ones)...it's being a long drought!...man VC has been so disappointing, I'm glad this game will keep me busy for, say 2 days?...It's an awesome game...I always wished there was a 2nd part, or they added more content, cause it felt short, and the ending story was meh!...but the suit and the weapons were so awesome!
So, since we're suppose to get a Mega Man game tomorrow, Cybernator, and we got Super Mario Kart today, wow Nintendo, three VC games in one week? You feeling okay? Here's hoping we get one or two for the 3DS as well.
This game is Awesome! Its a classic but its very challenging one of my favorite Super Nintendo games of all-time.
Such an AWESOME action title on the SNES!!! It's great to see this one up there!!
Finished Asults Suits Valken on the SFC, brill game. Let's hope it comes to Australia / Europe soon.
@retro_player_22
Cybernator was developed by the NCS corp and was only published by Konami.
Nice, now all we need is Sparkster, Turtles Tournament Fighters, and Castlevania: Dracula X on SNES and, for the love of damn, Contra on NES.
Oh, and Contra 4 would be great too. I missed that one.
I still have my SNES cart I think I'll replay it soon if I remember was a really short game but a lot of fun
I will definitely pick it NOT!
I remember that being a great game, will pick it up
this was one classic game underated at the time
Europe please, classic game
Got in the Wii but might be nice on the Wii U.
I loved the Japanese cover, the western one made it look too human like rather than the proper mecha look in the original. Just annoyed a lot of the story and the anime portraits were removed.
Pity the PS2 version botched the job by removing the strafe ability. That was essential in some levels.
@Jim_Purcell Here, see some gameplay to give you an idea if it's worth your while:
And for comparison's sake, here's Metal Warriors:
@Hero-of-WiiU Whaaaat???
@chilenozo Then you should try to find Metal Warriors; for all intends and purposes it is the spiritual successor of Cybernator; just check out the gameplay clips I posted.
One of my all time fav SNES titles. I was bummed we only got one true assault suit game (metal warrior doesn't count). I only beat the game twice. the last level is really challenging.
I think my head would explode from all the gunattacks hahaha. Seems a bit repeitive to me. But good for the fans. Enjoy
Um,..............COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL
@johnvboy @unrandomsam @retro_player_22 @Jim_Purcell I had never heard of Metal Warriors. Thanks to those who brought it up!
Love Cybernator but despite the major graphics upgrade I always preferred a predecessor called Target Earth in the US (for the Sega Genesis) also by NCS but not published by Konami.
It's great that this game still has strategy in the upgrading of weapons and the story-based stages and cool set pieces, but Target Earth had a shop and a much bigger variety of weapons. Plus the player was smaller on the screen so there was more visibility and super high jumps. The rhythm of play was really, really fun and the strategy was far deeper. Achieving certain goals well earned you more money in the shop to upgrade and certain weapons could help make some parts dramatically easier.
Target Earth was initially panned in the US for being too difficult (by EGM who also infamously panned Herzog Zwei for similar reasons). It was crazy difficult and at first I had to use a cheat I accidentally discovered in the options screen that gave you 9 continues (and which you could repeat to get endless!)
Eventually, though I could finish that only using a continue or two. So much skill and strategy for that type of game. It's actually one of my favorite games for the Genesis period.
This game was like a short simplified version with much better presentation and graphics on the SNES.
I loved this game back int the day on the SNES. I still have it so I can't justify spending 8 bucks when that could go toward buying a game I want but don't have. Still it's good to hear that it's on wiiU's VC so that people can still play it (legally)
So is this as good as it looks? Looks pretty sweet to me.
Funny as I played through the unofficial translation patch just the other day . I own the japanese cart, which has a suicide scene at the end, cut out of the North American and European versions, and keeps the character portraits intact (they were also cut from the Western versions). With that being said I still got the Wii VC version a couple years back, so I think I'll upgrade on Wii U at the reduced price, as it is an action game that I love to replay through every once in a while.
For those interested, there was also a Japanese exclusive title by Square named Front Mission: Gun Hazard with similar gameplay but with Square's obligatory RPG elements, and loads and loads of Mecha customization options (plus you get to hop out of the mech and explore on foot on certain occasions) and I think a designer from Assault Suits Valken took part in that game as well. Plus, Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitusda composed the soundtrack and Yoshitaka Amano did the character design, if that means anything to you (it sure does to me ). Game was never released officially in the west but there's a translation patch out there. Definitely worth checking out in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcgsEd1hfvo
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