Silent Assault

Silent Assault
Title screen of the English Sachen release.
Publisher	Sachen, HES, Milmar, Color Dreams
Developer	Joy Van
Cart ID(s)	TC-005
Console	NES/Famicom
Date	1989, 1990
Alternate names/hacks	Raid, Tu Ji

Silent Assault, also known as Raid/Tu Ji (突擊 in Chinese) is a run 'n gun game developed by Joy Van.

Gameplay

The game stars a commando who, being the only person not under their control, must rescue Earth from a race of brainwashing aliens. The game is a fairly linear action game, only scrolling from left to right. As the player progresses through the game's eight stages they can collect three kinds of weapons (bazooka launcher, shotgun, and a machine gun), health pickups, grenades, and invincibility medals. The bazooka launcher and machine gun are mostly the same, but the shotgun can fire three bullets at once in a spread fashion (the spread narrows as the weapon gets downgraded) and all the weapons become slower and have a shorter firing rate when the player takes damage.

Gameplay of the first stage.

Raid/Tu Ji Version

The original Chinese release by Joy Van is slightly different than every other release (and slightly better.) The differences include:

The final level of Tu Ji with a pink player sprite.

• You can restore to full 3 icons of health in Tu Ji, but only 2 1/2 in Silent Assault (you start a fresh new life with a full 3 icons in all versions.)
• The music is slower tempo and has different sound effects in Tu Ji.
• Stage 2's layout is slightly different (e.g. you can actually jump over the two torches at the end of the stage.)
• Each gun has a unique fire sound (save for shotgun, which plays no sound.) In Silent Assault all the guns play the same sound effect.
• Your character is pink in the final stage of Tu Ji, but green in Silent Assault.
• You get three continues in Silent Assault. Tu Ji gives you none.

Trivia

• The manual mentions the Medal of Bravery (the invincibility item) being able to protect against landmines, yet said traps will always instantly kill the player in all revisions of the game even with the medal.
• In most revisions of the game the player's an unnamed commando, but on the box of the English Sachen-published release the commando's named "Jason" and is mentioned to be good at using a hang glider. His name is only mentioned here and nowhere else.
• The player can end up stuck on a boss screen if they use a grenade, as the game only registers the boss being defeated if they're killed with standard weapons.
• The Super Cartridge version of the game is unbeatable, as the moving platform in the semi-final stage (Jungle) needed to cross over a pit of water is missing.
• The back of the Chinese release's box shows different level layouts and level graphics from the released versions, likely taken from an earlier prototype.

Gallery

Title screen from the Color Dreams release.

Title screen from the Chinese release.

The game's ending screen. The game returns to the title after the jingle plays.

Complete copy of a Sachen published NES release.

Famicom cartridge of Raid.

Box cover (Famicom).

Advert for the game on the back of a Joy Van cartridge.

Another image of Silent Assault's ad.