Assault Heroes review

The original content just keeps flowing to Xbox Live Arcade. This time it's yet another Robotron-inspired dual-stick shooter, but with a twist. Assault Heroes puts you behind the wheel of a couple different assault vehicles - a land-based buggy and a water-based gunship - through several lengthy, top-down stages overflowing with soldiers, helicopters, troop transports, mines, gun towers and a collection of gun placements and mechanized armor. In other words; more than enough stuff to shoot at.

The twist is that, should your buggy or boat be destroyed, you don't lose a life. Rather, you're stuck on foot or on a waverunner until you can procure another vehicle (they spawn at different points). Die while outside your ride, however, and you're down a life. It's a decent, unique mechanic that works well. Especially since you have to leave the safety of your vehicle voluntarily to tackle bonus stages or grab weapon upgrades. It's very much like the classic NES shooter, Blaster Master.

Weapons are limited at three. But the cool bit is that they aren't simply alternate ways to deal out the same amount of damage. Using the right weapon at the right time is key to success in Assault Heroes. The minigun will take care of the general fighting, but is all-but-useless against heavy armor. The flak cannon makes short work of that heavy armor, but the rate of fire is agonizingly slow – too much so for the smaller, faster enemies. And for infantry crowd control, the flame-thrower is the weapon of choice. All three can be upgraded a couple of times each, as well.