The Burning Wave is the stereotypical laser which will produce five asymmetric lasers when fully upgraded. The Chase Cannon fires a volley of homing missiles straight out of Macross incredibly useful but weak.

The Thunder Cracker is the standard which upgrades to a wide spread shot at full power. The list of weapons is kept relatively light however the four available cover most of the popular tropes. More of this and less crap like Ground Zero Texas would have gone a long way toward painting the Sega CD in a more positive light. There weren’t too many shooters for the Sega CD and so Android Assault has little competition and despite being a little derivative it’s a solid game. However a game doesn’t have to be innovative to be good and in that regard AA succeeds. Aside from the fully voiced intro and soundtrack it has nothing over the likes of Lightening Force.

Like a sizable chunk of the Sega CD’s library in the US there isn’t much in Android Assault that couldn’t be done on a Genesis cartridge. While it isn’t the best use of the added CD space ultimately that doesn’t matter as it is a good game first and foremost. For this reason games like Android Assault stood out more. Meanwhile Sega of America saw fit to unleash a barrage of assy FMV games on us that we did not deserve. Good support too, with many incredible RPGs and such.

In Japan it was a different story as the CD drive enjoyed more wide spread support. By 1995 the system had managed to build up a respectable amount of titles that made the cost (at that point anywhere between $50-100) worth it.

Next to the Saturn and Turbo Duo I wish the Sega CD had found some measure of success in the US.

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