The Legend of Steel Empire

The Legend of Steel Empire made me realise how much fun this classic shmup is all these years after its debut and that's rather special.

Overall though The Legend of Steel Empire is a solid release and visually updates a classic steampunk shmup that pretty much everyone loves. Even if you never played the original, this is still a lot of fun and perfectly suited to something like the Switch.

Despite some very minor annoyances, I really enjoyed my time with The Legend of Steel Empire. It’s a classic old school Shmup brought to the current era with upgraded art and funky music. Fans of the genre should absolutely check it out now that it’s available on Nintendo Switch.

The Legend of Steel Empire remains a faithful reimagination of the original release, even including the end credits gag. It will take a medium-skilled player less than an hour to do a complete loop but it is such a good time, that can’t be considered a fault. While it doesn’t quite enter the bullet hell pantheon of other shoot 'em ups on Switch, it is certainly worth the shelf space in your collection and might be the perfect excuse to dust off your arcade stick in 2024. Maybe one day down the line we'll get a proper 16:9 sequel handled by the original HOT-B staff, but in the meantime, this is a welcome return for the original.

The Legend of Steel Empire is a fun and simple shoot em up that welcomes newcomers and presents genre fans with the wanted challenge.

The Legend of Steel Empire is a decent enough way to play a cult classic shooter, even with a few rough points in the overall package. If you’re tired of having your head knocked around by the likes of Gradius or R-Type, you might find this to be the approachable shooter you’re looking for. I appreciate that they made some improvements in the presentation rather than just toss the original game out there, but it feels like there was a missed opportunity to do a little more here.

The Legend of Steel Empire is a fun side-scrolling shooter set in an interesting alternate history timeline. The gameplay is easy to get to grips with, allowing people of all skill levels to deal with enemies. However, the short length of the campaign is not truly worth the asking price, so I'd recommend waiting for a sale to pick it up.