Assassin [1992, Amiga] Review - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#36

TEAM 17, best known for their Worms franchise, was also responsible for other amazing titles like this one.

Developed in conjunction with Psionic Systems and released in 1992, Assassin’s plot is simple: infiltrate an high-tech underground fortress and kill the main villain – Midan.

In the process, there’s countless of genetically-engineered mutants that we must destroy in order to reach and conquer the main objective.

The programmers gave Assassin a number of friendly options: the ability to choose the number of lives – one, three or five – and the game’s difficulty – Rookie, Arcade or Ultimate. That way any player can try out Assassin and, even if this type of game isn’t your thing, you can really advance and be thrilled for doing so!

Five main levels awaits us and one final battle in the end with Midan himself.

We start off being dropped in a forest that surrounds Midan’s fortress. In this area the enemies are quite easy to engage and take down, but, as soon as you reach the construction zone, they will be alerted to your presence and tougher to kill. The third level is set in the missile control where Midan’s personal security guards are literally waiting for you and power-ups and bonuses are really scarce around here. Succeeding this you’ll find yourself in the genetic asylum, home of some nasty genetic experiments. I advise you to get out of this hostile place quickly! Those nasties are really hard to beat! Finally, right before you’re face to face with Midan, a final test awaits us: a maze-like warren of corridors and shafts filled with Arnie’s terminator-like endoskeletons and wall mounted laser cannons.

As an Amiga fan, Martyn Brown, founded Team 17 to make games that required 1Mb of RAM, as he was tired of seeing 512k ones being made for machines that would be able to do more.

Assassin was the least successful game from Team 17, mainly because of some bad reviews and a “special edition”, released 2 years later, that didn’t bring anything new to the game. On the contrary, various gameplay elements were even removed! What were they thinking? Even the box art from the original game was way better and appealing than the one from that supposed “special edition”.

Besides this, I think that this game deserved more recognition. Back in the day I thought that it was a huge hit. How I was wrong.

Being an Amiga exclusive, not all of you will be able to try it out, but you can always use an emulator for that purpose.

Graphically enjoyable and extremely playable, Assassin has also the most impressive atmospheric sound effects in a video game from British composer Allister Brimble, author of over 100 amazing tunes for the Amiga.

Speaking of playability, the fluid animation and the control that the player has over the main character, with some astonishing moves with a simple flick of the joystick, is just overwhelming.

Assassin was one of those gems that Amiga users would brag and made Atari ST owners explode in anger! But, again, I can’t understand why it didn’t sell well.. piracy?.. It is way better than U.S. GOLD’s Strider arcade conversion for home computers. No doubt about it!

Anyway, try it! It’s an amazing title and, with those awesome sound effects, you’ll be immersed in it for many hours!

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