SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition

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SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition is an unabashed, lazy ripoff of Ikari Warriors (Copyright SNK Corporation, 1986). Many lazy "amateur" developers don't pay attention to their obligations under copyright law, and often steal the ideas of actual, real game developers without credit, such as the "developer" here has done. At this stage no legal action has been taken by SNK Corporation against the "developer" here, but it's never off the table, as previous copyright law cases have shown.

Putting aside the unethical intellectual bankruptcy of stealing someone else's game concept for profit, this is also breaking that unwritten law of stealing other people's game ideas... you should at least try to do better than the game you're ripping off. SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition is considerably worse than Ikari Warriors.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result.

While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals.

Another problem with the 2D visuals is that they're garish, much more so than the Ikari Warriors game that this is trying to cash in on, which makes detecting enemies and dodging bullets harder, all because of poor art design effort. Another reason to avoid this.

The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for killing the first boss, trivial to get, but less than 27 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, gamers just weren't all that interested in the game.

Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a modest spike in player counts for the game. But this only happened once, around the same time that trading cards were applied to the game... so this is just card idlers getting their cards and moving on. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards.

SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition has the farcical price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam.

Going to give a thumbs up but just barely. Is really good, and a great example of what arcade games used to be like. This, unfortunately, is also its biggest problem. The difficulty is a little too steep especially when it expects you to restart the levels with no power ups. Typical 90's "We want ALL the quarters" BS. However, inputting quarters isn't part of the business model so I can't quite understand what the idea is here.

Regardless of that, I think I paid less than a dollar for the game and it was definitely worth that so thumbs up.

I like the very "40kish Rambo" aesthetics of the protagonist, the gameplay is simple and fun, the jokes are funny, and the price is low.

The game is a top down twin stick shooter with a story. It is fun, medium difficulty is not that hard, a 1 up playthrough is hard, you get a new difficulty when you play through the game once. The price is excellent for what you get. The music is good. Playtime for medium playthrough was for me 1,4 hours.

The game could use more enemies and attack patterns and a little diversion like a drive through level or something or a bonus stage here and there to make the gameplay more diversivied. But all in all it is an excellent game.

For the price it is really good, if you are a fan of old school twin stick shooters like Smash TV, Alien Syndrome, Xeno Crisis etc.

Awesome game. Hits hard, and doesn't outlive it's welcome. Killer music, kick ass art, and brutal game play. I'll be coming back to SturmFront, without doubt.

One of the most blatantly metal games I've played.

It's a nice shoot 'em up with bullet hell elements. It's super cheap and quite short, but I thought it was worth it!

Sadly i ran into an issue where the frame rate drops to single digits making the game unplayable. There seems to be no fix from the developer.

Reminds me of old NES games with it's top down camera and shooting action. Killer heavy metal soundtrack, and lots of blood and gore and guts and gore and blood and guts and then after a few stages there's more guts and gore and blood and gore and guts. This game should have been called "guts of war"

Groundbreaking work of art that bringest the post-modernist revolution in video games to a screaching halt with it's elaborate word play and intricate and innovative gameplay that lends much of it's influece to Ken Griffey Jr. Winning Homerun as well as Kafka by the Shore and the early work of Orson Wells.

...or you just blow everything to hell and collect powerups on a quest to blow everything up and collect powerfups. 6/10

I appreciate what the devs managed to accomplish because the good is very good, but unfortunately the game is hollow enough that the entire experience falls flat.

I enjoyed the graphics and the explosions and the gore and the aesthetic of smash TV.

The enemy patterns are totally predictable and have almost no variety. They just charge straight out you and can be easily dispatched. The only time I died was because I became so bored I stopped caring.

You carry a flamethrower which can cancel bullets so the rare time you are ever threatened you'll just tap the button and immediately nullify the threat. Bosses become an absolute joke because of this.

Each level has its own music but it's insipid and in a 30 second loop which immediately grates on the nerves.

If they put another couple of months of polish on this game, increase the enemy variety or their behaviors, introduce bullets that cannot be cancelled, and in general just give it some more love.... Then I will be happy to come back and revise my review but I don't see it happening.

It's an amateur game that is almost there.

Encountered a bug on level 4 where your weapon occasionally doesn't shoot, meaning the ammo counter (if you carry a weapon with limited ammo capacity, for example, the blade gun) goes down, but no projectile exits the barrel of the gun. Same goes for your default weapon. Needless to say, the bug makes the game way too hard. Cannot recommend the game at this point.

This is like a modern version of the overhead levels from Super C- except with tons of blood, gore and bad language. Actually it's almost like a bullet-hell shooter too (depending on difficulty). Only thing i didnt care for was the butt metal soundtrack.

Excellent Arcade shooting game! Totally recommended!

Good:
- Game Design is Heavy metal as fak
- Great Music
- Tense and Challenging gameplay
- Felt so satisfied to burn and exterminate the mutant boss
- Gasoolineeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Bad:
- I really want the new game plus with unlimited ammo and gasoline to wipe everythings out of the screen, but it doesn't have

Caution: Player will feel highly energized after completed this game

Looks like a pretty cool game so far, it feels like a mix between Contra and Ikari Warriors heavy metal version.
Game is pretty easy compared to those the older platformer games though but it it stil is fun to play.
I'll update this review once i'll be at the end of the game.

So far, i'm giving it 8.5/10 - Keep in mind that this game is just a small indie game so it's nothing big, fun nonetheless.
A level eidtor would be welcome.

This game FUCKING RULES.

If you like shooting things in video games, buy Sturmfront.

Doesn't even matter what type of shooter - you may look at this and scoff. "It's like an old game, phooey" and then go back to opening up loot boxes in whatever garbage Activision or EA is shouting about this quarter. Stop playing that garbage and BUY THIS GAME.

Sure, if you played and loved titles like Shock Troopers, Alien Syndrome, Zombies Ate My Neighbors or Soldier of Fortune (I believe you British gamers called that one something else though), you'll love this. It's also channeling DOOM with it's metal-af soundtrack (and title screen; look at that work of art), perfect amount of gore, and general tone, so if you love that game (or, like, any FPS from the 90's... or comic books from the 90's) you'll love this extra. You'll appreciate it on more levels or whatever.

But at the end of the day it doesn't matter what the fuck era of gaming you think is best; this game is the most metal a game can be that lets you power up your spreadgun to blow mutant aliens into glorious, gory bits. That it's made correctly with a config launcher so you can set it to Windowed Mode and mess with options before starting the damn thing up, and plays super well, and looks rad af and sounds so great and is just $8 - THAT'S WHAT MATTERS

This is the most awesome way to spend $8 on Steam.

Now I'm done writing this dumb review. I shouldn't have to convince people to buy this - I just wanna go back and play more!

This game is AWESOME!
So Sturmfront is basically you just shooting a bunch of aliens with different kinds of weaponry like the description says and it's metal af! The gameplay is simple and really enjoyable the bosses all a a little strategy to them and the soundtrack fits perfectly with the games apocalyptic theme.
Playing through the game on medium is a little challenging at first, until you realize that the blade laucher is op af! It was pretty easy to plow through the game but hard mode adds the challenge. If you don't know how to block your screwed.
So, the game rules and I think it should be succesful. And as a last note the art is hecking beautiful.

Along with Oniken, this is one of the best retro-style games on Steam at the moment. Fantastic action; satisfying despite the simplicity too (especially the flesh ripper blade gun). The graphics actually fit perfectly with the heavy metal style and general aesthetic as well, rather than seeming contrived. Difficulty (while playing normal) is at a nice level - even trickier levels might take 4/5 attempts and then you can just blow through them, as you would like to with this type of game. One of few games that I can easily see myself returning to play through again and again at the higher difficulties. As a fan of twin-stick shooters (though I use the mouse personally to aim for this game) and action filled FPS games like Doom, Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam, I can very enthusiastically recommend this game. While I don't have too much time put into the game yet, I know I will soon - I really enjoying playing it.

Only one or two issues with this game for me; the first being very minor:
1. Some of the less satisfying guns crop up a bit too often for my liking. While a rocket launcher seems fun at first, they end up being somewhat useless due to their only having 10 shots and the first enemies you'll encounter always after acquiring one are a decent handful of things that can be killed with one shot by your basic weapon. Not even really enough of them concentrated together to make that satisfying. But you blow through the 10 rockets so quickly, you can get back to your basic gun and back to normal. Or you could push through those enemies with the flame thrower and get to the tougher enemies with the rocket launcher. I would have liked to have seen them placed in different locations though, or have more of the other guns available.

2. The bosses are far too easy. Their patterns don't get progressively more difficult as you knock their health down (in fact some get easier) and you can wipe their whole health bar within 10 seconds in a lot of cases. Generally though, the level leading up to the boss fight is really enjoyable. In a way that makes up for it, but it also does make the fight itself very disappointing.

Ikari Warriors + Black Metal + Contra = The Relentless Non-Stop Blood-fueled Psychopathic Fever Dream called SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition.

Any attempt to describe it will come out sounding like a word salad drenched in a dressing of gore and gasoline. The mechanics encourage you to get knee deep in the dead and follow the chaotic flow of battle as you purge every mutant in your way with fire and steel. I'd say it's absolutely two thumbs up, but this game will replace your hands with viscera-coated chainsaws. 666% Recommended.

Are you a weak little person who know nothing of the beauty of a post apactolipic distopia? Then do not play this game. Have you never listened to heavy metal, watched film on VHS, stole liquor from your parents, know what Warhammer is or ever experinced your first boner? Then don't play this. But if you have experinced all of these things and more then you are ready friend (I can call you that, you passed the test), to play this game. Go on, fight strong, make us proud. Exterminate everything.

I love this "cobblers" alien invasion and big space marines blasting the crap out of monsters just brilliant!! for £5 brilliant buy to be honest spend more on a "Sasuage and egg sandwich" with tomato sauce!! cheers lads and lasses:)