The most underrated game of the 16bit era...
Names like Contra, Metroid and Castlevania are all fine games, but hugely overrated for what they are. To me those games are souped up NES games, whereas Cybernator (Assault Suits Valken in Japan) was truly 'next gen'. It had gameplay elemetnts that appealled to more in depth tastes, perhaps it was too detailed for most gamers, I don't know.
Some standout features:
1. Hold button, to let you hold your aim steady while walking or flying.
2. Upgradeable weapons, via power packs. Collect enough Ps and you weapon levels up.
3. Great physics, it actually felt like a heavy, powerful mech suit.
4. Realistic tone, great to see Konami have a good attempt at making the gameplay believable.
5. Challenging enemies, but not stupidly hard. Your mech could sustain quite a lot of hits before dying.
6. Beautiful graphics, well animated, big enemies and even better main character. Memorable heavy duty suit! Nice and varied backgrounds too. Snow stage has great atmosphere.
I first played this game in 1993 at 12 years old and always had fond memories. Recently I rediscovered SNES gaming after being disillusioned with high-end PC gaming. It is one game of the SNES era that has aged remarkably well. For me it stands up there with Mario World, Mario All Stars, Zelda, and Secret of Mana as the cream of the crop.
Perhaps the only negatives are it is quite short, a good player could complete it in about 3 to 4 hours. But for me it really the quality of the experience that makes me come back. Try to find this game if you've previously missed it, you'll be pleasantly surprised.