Steel Talons

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Steel Talons
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Tengen
Developer: Polygames
Distributor: Domark (EU)
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Publisher(s) of original games: Atari Games
Developer(s) of original games: Atari Games
Genre: Simulation, Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-11 ¥? ? JP 1993-06-25 ¥6,800 (7,004)6,800e T-48103 US 1992 301043-0150 EU 1992 T-88046-50 UK 1992 £39.9939.99 T-88046-50 KR 199x GM4101JT

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Steel Talons (スティールタロンズ) is a helicopter combat game originally released in arcades by Atari Games. It was later brought to the Sega Mega Drive.

Sega also distributed the arcade version in Japan.

Gameplay

Steel Talons is an early 3D shoot-'em-up, in which players pilot a helicopter tasked with destroying a certain number of enemies on the map (combat missions) or enemy helicopters (head to head). As an arcade game (as opposed to contemporaries such as LHX Attack Chopper) the controls are greatly simplifed, and while a "real heli flight" option exists to bring more lifelike helicopter physics into play, by default the player can pick a height and expect to always remain at a fixed position above the ground.

fires missiles, fires the cannon, and adjusts the height in Z. All of the weapons in the game automatically lock on to enemies if in short range.

Versions

Steel Talons was designed for much more powerful hardware than any home system available in 1991/1992, and so compromises were made for every platform the game was ported to; the Mega Drive, Super NES and Atari Lynx (with an Atari Falcon030 version appearing later in 1995). No home versions match the arcade game's performance, screen resolution or polygon count.

While the Mega Drive renders a true 3D world (versus the occaisonal simple polygon on a 2D gradient seen on the SNES), its version of Steel Talons was critically panned at release for its very low frame rates, often to the point of being unplayable. Conversely the Lynx version, designed for a much weaker handheld system, is a more accurate port with a smoother frame rate, and the Super NES, while looking very different to the arcade, also avoids many of the huge performance dips.

In complicated scenes, it is not uncommon to see the Mega Drive version drop below 5FPS.

Magazine articles

Main article: Steel Talons/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

US print advert

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #10: "November/December 1992" (1992-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #41: "December 1992" (1992-xx-xx)
• Game Informer (US) #8: "January/February 1993" (199x-xx-xx)
• Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) #5: "February 1993" (1993-01-12)
• Sega Visions (US) #11: "February/March 1993" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Mega Force (FR) #18: "Juin 1993" (1993-0x-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1993-07: "July 1993" (1993-06-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication Score Source Beep! MegaDrive (JP) 48 Beep! MegaDrive (readers) (JP) 56 Famitsu (JP) 45 №237, p39 GamesMaster (UK) 51 57 №23 Hippon Super (JP) 60 №1993-07, p44 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 55 №6, p26/27 Mega (UK) 55 Mega Action (UK) 45 №4, p12 MegaTech (UK) 68 №13, p66-68 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 29 Sega Power (UK) 27 №39, p54 Sega Pro (UK) 69 №16, p36/37 Sega Pro (UK) 62 №18, p67 Sega Zone (UK) 74 №4, p40/41 Sega Force (UK) 62 Sonic the Comic (UK) 80 №2, p12

	55
Based on 17 reviews

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US (cardboard)
Cover

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, FR
Manual

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 10e4ec63 MD5 4523a96042e40b0d1ad24cc80be72c37 SHA-1 b4f0a13646c13911be5550103301af25827fcd0c	512kB	1992-07	Cartridge (US/EU)
✔	CRC32 04f388e6 MD5 edfa7b1d6ce95725d2803b8f82e01b90 SHA-1 93c51ec9fcc56d858642018905b3defc17442c26	512kB	1993-06	Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 c4052f18 MD5 8821e3b3bb6c1bda06f419527b3ef820 SHA-1 c3edd1f6b9f4fb16104d09c17b66feebb3785f4e	512kB	1992-07					Page