Darn and blast!
Written by Jason Venter
Published Jul. 24, 2024
Over Horizon X Steel Empire is a collection of two horizontal shooters that have released on various platforms over the years, dating all the way back to the NES. As compilations go, it’s pretty light on distinct content, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add it to your collection. There are compelling reasons to do so, especially if you love the genre.
As its title mostly implies, Over Horizon X Steel Empire collects two games. However, when it comes to Steel Horizon, both the Mega Drive original from 1992 and the Game Boy Advance port from 2004 are included. Players also have access to English and Japanese versions. The port job was handled primarily by Ratalaika Games, and includes a variety of frills to ensure a modern audience can more easily enjoy the end result.
There are two modes of play for each game. In Standard mode, you can rewind the action and use in-game cheats. In Challenge mode, you play as you would have on the original platforms. Available cheats include unlimited lives, invincibility, and fully powered shots. You can toggle any of those options on or off whenever you like while playing in the approved mode. The ability to rewind the action is very cool (and now becoming standard when retro games are ported to current hardware). You can modify the sensitivity, but I found things worked pretty well by default. There are also save states if you want them for some reason. The rewind functionality was as much as I cared to utilize.
Controls are responsive in both games, as you might expect. I played the Nintendo Switch version, using a Pro Controller. I was able to move my ships/blimps around the screen quite naturally using either the d-pad or the analog stick. There are options in settings if you need to adjust the controls, but I didn’t mess with them because the defaults felt very natural.
Beyond the features noted above, and some additional video options with filters and shaders, the compilation doesn’t offer a lot of pizzazz. This isn’t a Digital Eclipse take on retro compilation, which for all I know might have included all sorts of resources and artwork from prior releases. But to be frank, not every compilation can include that sort of attention to detail. In my opinion, we can count ourselves fortunate—mostly—that we’re getting this one at all, for at least one big reason: this is the first official release for Over Horizon in North America.
Previously released only in Japan and Germany (for some reason), Over Horizon was developed by a team called Pixel, before Hot-B took over development and polished things until they had a lovely sheen. My experience with Hot-B has mostly been limited to its fishing games, though the developer released various other games before going bankrupt in 1993. Much of its talent went on to work at Starfish SD, which remained active through 2023. At this point, relatively few people in North America spend much time thinking about either company. If they do, it’s because of Over Horizon, which is a much better game than its limited release history might suggest.
In Over Horizon, players control a ship soaring through space (or a samurai warrior, if they activate a cheat to enjoy that option). As it defeats enemies, the vessel powers up its weapons to become more proficient. Attacks include shells that inflict explosive damage when colliding with an object, laser beams, and heat-seeking ordinance. Ships can eventually acquire two pods to fly adjacent to them (above and below them by default), which increases firepower still further.
Over Horizon isn’t super lengthy. It consists of six stages or so, each made distinct by various environmental hazards. Visuals are more than serviceable by NES standards, featuring surprisingly lively architecture given the number of vessels flying around the screen. The first stage opens with vine-infested platforms, which feels more ambitious than the early Gradius games, for instance. Later stages include a robotic manufacturing plant with opening and closing gates, an icy wasteland, a desert, an aquatic world, and more.
For me, the fresh environments do the most to make the Over Horizon experience engaging. Blasting huge ice blocks and making them crush enemies feels very fresh to me, even now. Shooting my way through huge walls of ice is not quite as thrilling, but it’s still not super common. You might say they’re gimmicks, but they’re gimmicks the developers committed to fully. That desire to make the most of the available mechanics extends to the boss battles, which force you to think outside the box. In one case, the best way to survive the enemy onslaught is to use gates to your advantage, which requires you to float around a maze of steel, always keeping your positioning in mind.
As a game experienced for the first time in 2024, Over Horizon isn’t amazing. Technology has allowed the medium and the genre to progress a lot since 1991’s hardware limitations. A lot of the former spectacle is the sort of thing we now take for granted. The real value comes from the ability to get our hands on a quality experience that was previously denied us, to see what developers were doing a little bit off the beaten path. There’s always emulation, but I’m partial to official releases.
The other included game, Steel Empire, was the almost immediate follow-up to Over Horizon. It’s a similarly ambitious release. However, I don’t like it nearly as much, despite the visual flair.
In The Steel Empire (and in Steel Empire, the GBA port, which I prefer), you can fly either a plane or a blimp. The plane moves much faster. The blimp has a more robust life meter as compensation. Personally, I don’t feel like the ability to take a few more hits makes up for the more limited mobility, because speed is frequently vital.
As Steel Empire progresses, it presents the case for substance over style by going in completely the opposite direction. This approach makes for an exhausting experience. As in Over Horizon, you can fire both to the left and the right. But there’s so much stuff happening that the ability to do so rarely feels empowering in the ways it did in the previous game. Instead, it feels like one more hassle. From the very first stage, there’s all sorts of activity on-screen, with smaller vessels materializing from all sides, while the backgrounds feature ornate architecture and detailed attractions that aren’t always easy to distinguish from actual threats. The game feels very busy in general. It would have delighted the senses in 1992, I assume. Nowadays, it’s a distraction.
Boss battles prove especially draining. They last too long, forcing you to endure while facing off against enemies that deal out death at an alarming rate. You can tip the scales in your favor by learning their patterns, but typically this requires precision movement and a lot of trial and error. To get through the stages, I utilized the heck out of the Rewind function, which was the only reason I survived to explore the later areas. I didn’t have much fun along the way, because even some of the game’s attempts at innovation fell flat. There’s one extended sequence where you have to fly through a passageway while blasting debris ahead of you. The speed is significant, and it’s easy to adjust position a hair too much and smash against rock, instantly losing one of your few ships. Frankly, I don’t know how players tolerated the gauntlet back in the day. It’s like the infamous third stage in Battletoads, with the speed bikes, except not so forgiving.
Sadly, out of the two games, Steel Empire is the one that received the most support from its developers and publishers. There’s even a 3DS version available from 2014, which isn’t included here. Meanwhile, the better of the two games in the compilation has been largely ignored until now, except by genre diehards.
Although only one of the games included in Over Horizon X Steel Empire earns a hearty recommendation in 2024, I’m glad the compilation exists. More of the lost games of yesteryear need to be brought to current hardware, so we can better appreciate just how our favorite genres have developed over the decades. Over Horizon X Steel Empire retails for $14.99 on the eShop and on the PlayStation Store. That’s probably a little more than most folks will be excited to pay for the privilege of playing. But if you have a gold coins balance sitting around, or if you can catch the compilation on sale, it’s worth your attention.
