"Half-toasted and nearly eaten alive, all in one day. I love this job."
Assault: Retribution is a 1998 Run-and-Gun game developed for the PlayStation by Candle Light Studios and published by Midway Games. It's also a Contra clone with giant insectoid mutants in place of alien soldiers as the mooks of the game.
In the future, a nearby planet of alien mutants had started infecting surrounding planets, turning various worlds into mutant-infested hellholes. Earth, facing extinction, sends their two best soldiers, Reno Washington and Kelly Doyle, on a daring mission to repel the mutants and infiltrate the mutant homeworld, to find and destroy its Hivemind.
So... yes, it's basically Contra, with enemies that looks more like the monsters from Alien, and a backstory borrowed from Starship Troopers note . Any questions?
Of course not, Have fun!
This game contain examples of:
- Admiring the Abomination: Partway through the game, your player comes across a room full of scientists experimenting on the mutants. But those turns out to be rogue scientists whom had become fascinated with the mutants, where they instead inject themselves with mutant DNA, transforming into enemies right before you.
- Airborne Mooks: Winged mutants, which resembles giant flying bugs from Starship Troopers, are enemies you encounter in outdoor environments and rooftop levels.
- Breath Weapon: Most of the bosses, who attacks by breathing fire, poison, or energy blasts.
- Bug War: Befitting a game whose enemies are lifted directly from Alien and Starship Troopers.
- David Versus Goliath: Most of the bosses at the end of the level towers absolutely over the players. And the player defeats them anyway by throwing every bullet and grenade they have.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The final level, where after the Mutant Hivemind is down, the unstable core of the mutant planet then implodes destroying the whole place.
- Eldritch Location: The final level in the mutant's home planet, where the platforms are alive, Meat Moss everywhere, turrets made of flesh... and let's not forget the Final Boss, the Mutant Hivemind, a towering tumor growing out the ground.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: One of the bosses is a giant insect-thing which you pursue on a Hover Bike and shooting at it, while avoiding the shots it fires on you.
- Giant Mook: Giant mutants and oversized spiders started showing up in later levels, beginning from the lab.
- Giant Spider: Another recurring mutant type you can encounter.
- Homing Projectile: One of the more useful power-ups, which dispense missiles that homes in on the nearest target. It's especially great against the Invisible Monster boss during the third encounter.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The two players. Reno Washington (Player one on 2p mode) is a Scary Black Man covered entirely in muscles, while Kelly Doyle (Player two) is a small woman who use increasingly larger guns each level.
- Invisible Monsters: The third boss is a fast-moving, invisible mutant monster who can strike from out of nowhere, although it attacks in a pattern that the players can observe and time to dodge, and the game will throw helpful indicators as to where it will fire its projectiles.
- Mook Maker: Mutant eggs, as tall as the players, who can spawn infant mutants which latches on the players and drains their health.
- More Dakka: The game keeps throwing bigger and better guns at you as it goes on, appropriate since you'll be fighting entire swarms of mutant monsters.
- Multiple Head Case: The second boss is a colossal mutant consisting of three reptilian heads growing from the ground without a body attached, who will attack in turn - the attacking head will be vulnerable when lashing out at the players while the other two remains in an organic force-field, and the player repeatedly battles the head until their collective life is spent.
- Natural Weapon: Most of the enemies, being mutant monsters, doesn't have access to firearms, and attack you via clawing, biting, clinging on you while draining your health, and with their barbed tails.
- One-Man Army: One (or two) player against a mutant army, which they slaughter by the hundreds.
- Orbital Bombardment: The final level in the mutant planet ends with humanity eliminating the rest of the mutant colonies via a nuke sent from orbit.
- Organic Technology: Levels where your player enters the mutants' bases reveals their tech to be organic, from Meat Moss to birthing chambers growing out of walls.
- Outrun the Fireball: At least two situations...
- After a Kill Sat has been launched to destroy a mutant colony, the player must run like crazy through the mutants' tunnels to the exit.
- The second-to-last level on the collapsing space station inhabited by mutants, which blows up as the player flees through corridors full of mutant eggs.
- Power Pincers: One of the later bosses, a Giant Scorpion-mutant-hybrid creature, will attack the player by lashing out with pincers.
- Recurring Boss: The aforementioned Invisible Monster boss needs to be fought thrice. The first time it's encountered, is in a narrow corridor where it couldn't move about too much plus there is an existing set of barricades for you to take cover while observing his attack patterns, so it's relatively easy to defeat. But it came back later, Not Quite Dead, this time fighting you in an open area without any cover you can hide behind. If you do defeat it again, it returns for Round 3, this time in a circular arena full of pits and deathtraps.
- Sequential Boss: The Mutant Hivemind and the Final Boss; first you must defeat the eye-like appendages surrounding its sides (harder than it sounds, as they become invulnerable once they're shut); after destroying those eyes, you go for the core while avoiding lasers, and then destroying its main body.
- Spread Shot: Well, it's a Contra clone, that goes without saying. Besides the traditional spread gun, there's also the spread beam which fires three laser bolts at the same time per shot.
- Stationary Boss: While the bosses are large in size, most of them really aren't capable of moving, notably the three-headed mutant and the mutant Hive Leader, the Final Boss. Doesn't make them any less difficult.
- Stuff Blowing Up: See all those barrels, crates and destroyable objects throughout the game? They blow up, and can take down plenty of mutants when it happens.
- Super-Soldier: The two player heroes, Reno Washington and Kelly Doyle, are bio-experimented humans genetically engineered to be the best soldiers in fending off the mutant invasion.
- Xenomorph Xerox: The mutant enemies are practically Xenomorphs without being referred directly, being brown, insectoid monsters without eyes, attacking the player with claws, and coming in droves attempting to Zerg Rush the player each time (much like in Aliens). Especially notable in later stages, where they're shown to be birthed from eggs with their default infant form being facehugger-esque spider-things who latches on the players.
- Weak Turret Gun: The mutant turrets — made of Organic Technology, much like everything else — can be destroyed by just a handful of shots. The tricky part is when they're sniping your player from hard-to-access areas.
- Zerg Rush: The mutants, who comes at you in droves. Good thing you have More Dakka on your side.
