I know this is October but I
can’t do the marathon review of Horror game like in last year, just yet. I have
big urgency to review Treasure’s Gunstar Heroes (1993) for the list of my top
Sega Megadrive games. “So, you didn’t include Gunstar Heroes on the list,
before?” Yeah, but that’s what I’m trying to fix. Since I already made review
from 100 to 81 top Sega Megadrive games, Gunstar Heroes won’t be in that number
ranking. You wouldn’t accept this game to be in that low, right?
Quite promising title screen.
The man over there is the protagonist. Instead, the icon cursor is one of the
protagonists. I don’t know why I haven’t played the game to finish before. I
just try first level and then become completely forgetful about it. Quite
irresponsible of me. Perhaps I’m the only person in the world that haven’t
finished Gunstar Heroes. Actually, that’s not true. I believe my big brother
haven’t either. So, that’s two of us. Let’s just hit 1 player new game,
immediately.
This is quite unique. I’m
tasked with customization for my character. That’s rare feature in video games,
save for Gradius and Rohga: Armor Force. First phase, I have to choose between
Free Shot, where my character can shoot and move at the same time Contra’s
standard or Fixed shot, where my character will stand still when shooting but
allow me to shoot in 8 directions. I believe Free Shot guy is called Red and
Fixed Shot guy is called Blue. Then I have to choose my starter weapon between:
usual rapid shot, piercing laser, homing shot, or flamethrower. As much as I
want the flamethrower because I’m Pyro but I prefer the homing shot. Pair it
with Free Shot seems best idea for Run ‘n Gun.
Then I move on to stage
select. There are 4 of stages. 1) The ancient ruins. Pink’s mining machine dug
up a gem. 2) The underground mine. Bring back my brother Green. 3) The flying
battleship. Captain orange is about to leave with a gem. 4) Black, the lord of
strange fortress, has a gem. I just go with the most left first. Apparently,
empire army is attacking the natives. But I don’t care.
So, the control is D-Pad to
move, crouch, and aim around. ‘A’ button to switch weapon. ‘B’ button to shoot.
‘C’ button to jump. Apparently, I can pick up same weapon and it enhance the
homing shot into stronger version! Then I safe the -so called- native by
destroying their hut. Don’t blame me! Blame the homing shot that prioritizes
native’s hut instead of the imperial army. The imperial soldier is armored
soldier as you can see on the left or right. Whereas, natives are diminutive
people as you can see near the hut I destroyed.
Some enemies drop heart icon
that can heal my health. Good news! There’s no one-hit death system. But I’m
annoyed with how to pick up item. I have to crouch and then press shoot button
very near the thing. Crouching alone should be enough.
Not far from there I
encounter the first mini-boss, called Papaya dance. Its attacks are balloon
bomber and mother ant. That’s clearly not mother ant. That’s big freaking
caterpillar!
Then I climb the native’s
pyramid to fight this man formed by dozen cubes called Bravoo Man. No, it’s not
Bravo. It’s Bravoo. The game told me that. I’m positive. As for what this
creature does? Not much other than walk and jump around. I picked rapid shot
that replace one of homing shot. The combination is not bad, probably better
than I had. It’s another homing shot but even stronger than the combination of
homing shot but it has weaker maneuverability.
After passing through
native’s forest. I encounter the boss level called Pinky Roader. I don’t know
how should I deal with this gunman directly shoot at me. Maybe I can slide by
holding down direction on D-pad and jump. But his shooting pattern is too fast
and tight. I doubt I can slide between his laser shots. Other than that, this
boss is quite easy. I accidentally replace the rapid shot with laser. That
makes the combination: a line of laser that homing on enemy. See the laser that
makes square shape? That’s the combination of laser and homing shot. To be
fair, I prefer the rapid + homing shot which I think stronger than this.
Upon defeating Pinky Roader,
Pinky and her friends fly away in distance and she drops the gem. Red
guy looks very happy that he obtains the gem.
For the next level, I
pick the underground mine. I expect to fight Green who used to be on our side
according to prologue. Be aggressive? You mean “Let’s attack aggressively” the
jargon of Contra?
The -so called- special
modified mining cart is fast and capable of jumping but Red Guy need to slouch
to drive it. Clearly not ergonomic especially for long drive. I didn’t know
that the imperial soldiers can do sick flying kick. All I can remember about
them is: they take a lot of damage even for the lowest grunt. Watch out for
enemy’s mining cart that throw bomb with skull icon.
I. Uh! I don’t think mining
cart supposed to run like this and also train over there. I just notice there’s
sleeping soldier inside the train. Does he not aware of havoc that I made?
I catch up the locomotive of
the train where this not-M. Bison chucking his own men at me but I simply shoot
them all including himself. I just realize that I can switch side to ceiling
and vice versa by pressing jump button twice. The process is slow but it’s
essential for this level.
I encounter Green and he
turns into what called seven force. First, he turns into this bipedal robot
that throw his feet as boomerang!
On another vertical shaft,
Green turns into dancing bird. Not hard to dodge his dancing. But then he turns
into golden gun! It predates Sega’s Golden Gun (2010) by 17 years! The gun form
is not joking around. It can track me very fast and accurate. I have to time my
jump to dodge the shot.
We fight in another vertical
shaft but in upward direction this time and he turns into sea urchin form where
he spins around or shoot plasma balls in 8 directions.
The last form is crab where
he intensely tests your ability to switch sides. He can roll iron balls along
either floor or ceiling. Or puts chunk of iron that turn into wall that block
80% length of screen. Or shooting simple plasma orb.
I almost lose in this boss
fight. If not using save state, I won’t pass this level. I mean you can argue
that I lack of skill or something. What I don’t like in this boss fight is I
have to play the game perfectly otherwise I lose continue. I wish there’s
healing item between the phases but there’s none. So, Green just gives me the
gem upon defeated and he loses his cape as he throws the gem. Many people don’t
notice the cape but I do.
According to mission
briefing, I have to get into the battleship ASAP. But as I jump into it and
hoping Red will climb into it, he just falls foolishly. Scout_sf12_falling02.wav
So, I have to jump on the
platforms on the left building. Eventually I’m able to catch up on the
battleship and jump into it. To be fair, the professor in briefing screen,
makes the situation is really urgent that I’m afraid I get game over if I don’t
climb the battleship immediately.
I’m tempted to replace the
homing shot with another rapid shoot there so I can have super rapid shoot but
I choose not to because homing shot is always useful in any game. Look at that
git sleeping while I shoot around. Is he deaf or something?
This mini-boss called
swapping reg is silly. It likes to stomp around and occasionally releases
projectile from its feet. Once I slide inside the leg, this silly machine can
barely do anything to stop me. Scout_specialcompleted10.wav
Then I fight the dictator in
red, on gyrocopter. He likes to fly around with jetpack and throw bomb but he’s
no match for me. I like the Imperial army cheering on the dictator there while
he got shot in the arse, quite literally.
Now Captain Orange is here
and we fight on the Gyrocopter. First fight with him doesn’t go well. He likes
to shoulder charge around. Even if I manage to jump out of the way, he will get
me the moment I land. Then I discover that if I hang below the Gyrocopter by
holding down on d-pad and pressing jump, he barely can do anything to hit me.
This boss fight is surprisingly easier than the previous ones. Captain Orange
also has ability to hang on copter’s spinning blade to reposition himself but
that means nothing if I stay below the wing like this. Although, I’m impressed
he’s able to do that without losing his arm in process.
As defeated, Captain Orange
plummeted to the ground in comical way and he leaves the gem for me to get. Scout_dominationhvy01.wav
Next level takes place in The
Dice Palace. I know this place. It’s the part of the game that streamers afraid
of. I believe this infamous section is the inspiration for Mr. King Dice level
from Cuphead but the number of squares is too many! I’m very afraid of
the square with gun forbidden icon. Run n Gun game that forbids gun sounds too
much for me. I mean I know the Gunstar Hero has some hand-to-hand thing like
sliding, flying tackle (done by pressing jumping twice) and throw. But he’s not
as adept as Gunmaster in term of melee combat. To roll the dice, I need
to throw it by holding a direction and pressing shoot button, kind like in Gunmaster.
So, I get into fight with
this flying worm called Valvalion. Isn’t this worm supposed to be parody of
Taito’s Sylvalion? Anyway, this creature is not hard to beat. Just avoid his
body and shoot.
This level is weird. I have
to go to that goal sign but there’s labyrinth prevents me doing so. I can punch
that somehow replace my gun shot, for this level. To change maze’s layout, I
can punch buttons on the same room, left and right rooms besides it. The thing is: the layout change felt random.
That probably doesn’t sound bad. But there’s time limit on top of that besides
living plasma ball as you can see on the left corner. Anything that involves
timer always make me panic. Through random sequence, I manage to get to exit.
My next fight is against
Minion Soldier. Look at how tiny you are. Think you have what it takes to
defeat me? You silly. Even he’s small, he has big health for some reason.
Next opponent is something
called The Pit. I have to destroy those red balls with creepy smile. This is
not supposed to be review about horror game but here we are. For damn reason,
the wall bit over there can also hurt me.
Next challenge is another
race to the goal. But this time, it’s easy to understand. I can do bit of wall
jump if the wall is very close, so I can reach higher place. There are some
enemy soldiers but you best ignore them. They’re there to waste your time.
This enemy just called
phantom. He does nothing in particular except jumping toward me and when he
does get close to me, he throws bomb. Since, there’s no health number indicator
on this mini boss, I was afraid I have to do something more than spamming
thousand bullets on him. Turns out, he’s super tanky about it and eventually
perishes
This is where I fall because
I have no idea what am I supposed to do. When I try to think what’s going on
here, I get defeated by lasers reflected by those red orbs. To defeat this
Vortex Base. I have to hit the mini Tesla Tower on the bottom. But it’s not
that easy because the bottom part scrolling fast on some occasion. Fine, let’s
retry!
This time, I fight against
this flying machine that drop bombs and rewinds time so the bomb’s explosion
happens twice. That’s creative.
WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU????
This thing called Melon Bread, should belong in horror game. This is not
Halloween special review. Get out!
If you’re lucky. I mean very
very lucky. You can get into “Take an item” square where you can take actually
more than an item. You can change your weapon and take the small heal item. I
like the exit sign quite similar to emergency exit in real life.
This is another enemy that
strikes me with “WHAT THE FREAK ARE YOU???”. The thing called Abarenbou Gel, is
that big blob with D: expression that I shoot at. It spawns explosive orb with
same funny expression.
I hit the “return to the
start” square but don’t worry! I have cleared many squares beforehand. Squares
that I already cleared will stay so. This challenge is probably the easiest.
I’m tasked to destroy these machines and there’s no harm coming at me. I mean I
notice, there’s a soldier there shouting “No!” but he barely does anything to
stop me. This reminds me of that bonus level in Final Fight. That guy should
cry “Oh my machine!” when I’m through with this.
Next fight is against Super
Gondola. I have to destroy every turret on the Gondola. Some of turrets drop
bomb that destroy floor. Other just plain projectiles.
I manage to get on the
finish, eventually. Now, I fight with the owner of this bastard palace: Mr.
Black himself. So, this time he rolls the dice himself and two or four colored
squares shoot certain projectile depends on the color. I don’t care about this “board
and dice” crap anymore. I blast Mr. Black’s machine and he downs relatively
fast. He gives me the gem but turns out it was firecracker and I get damage
from it. So, I shoot the bastard until he gives me the real gem. I’m baffled
that he survives despite intense bullet barrage that I delivered. I suspect the
Gunstar hero’s gun is not lethal thus explaining why everything is so tanky but
then it can destroy machine quite well.
Upon return to the briefing
screen, the professor is tied and Yellow the female assistant on the right
corner, is kidnapped. The kidnapper demands the gem that we get so far. Now,
I’m on my way to get to kidnapper while enemies spawn endlessly. You see that
git on flying platform? I try to shoot it but it refuses to destroy. I guess it
makes sense if the platform is armored with bullet-proof metal or whatever. So,
the solution to defeat this platform is to throw it along with the driver. That
barely make sense. I mean I know Gunmaster can throw flying Leo in mid-air but
it’s different game. Different context. See what I mean?
Then I’m defeated by this
walker robot because I misjudge my sliding kick to pass its mechanical legs.
Look at that bastard so proud on the robot. Why don’t you come over here to
ground level!
The dictator in red is back
after throwing away fake boss which is regular troop that constantly moving his
upper body like spring doll on dashboard. His actual name is Smash Daisaku
which not related to any color, surprisingly. He does the jetpack routine like
before. Once his health reaches 2,000, he ditches the jetpack and proceed to
hit me with his hairdryer gun. There are 2 shot patterns he has. 1) Sine and
Cosine motion in tandem. 2) a single fireball that can track you if you jump
over it when it flies slightly higher. Then he tries to approach, hoping to
grab you. Also, he does downward stretched kick in mid-air like Dhalsim. You
should slide kick under that to switch side.
I defeat Smash Daisaku but he
refuses to die like Sirado in Deception III. I manage to catch up on him
but he points his gun at Yellow. Her head will turn into smoldering mess unless
I give him all the gems to the kidnapper.
The kidnapper happy with the
gems and move on to background. As Smash Daisaku laughs at me a native rescue Yellow. Smash chases him but get chased by his friends instead. The kidnapper
escapes to outer space with the gems. So, it’s not happy end yet.
Fortunately, the professor
has dug up a spacecraft for us to get after the villain. Nice thing about this
shmup section is: the jump function is replaced with fast dash, useful to dodge
enemy’s attacks. Another feature of this spacecraft is ability to shoot in
eight directions though the aim is slow. I need to move my spacecraft to the
direction where I want to aim my gun and then I can hold the shoot button.
First time in this section, my weapon is bad: flamethrower + laser which
results in short laser. It’s enough to remind me of the horrible shmup Gadget Twins. Although to be fair, the short laser and the flexible aim more
resembles weapon in Capcom’s Eco Fighter. The seven force is back but
the combat is much easier because I’m in spacecraft so I don’t need to be bound
by gravity and I can move any direction relatively free.
Then I encounter this boss
called guard device. First, it attacks me with his weird line of balls swinging
around and also constantly spawn bots that shoot laser. I always caught off
guard with this swing attack because it doesn’t move in constant speed. It
starts slow and gradually faster. Sounds simple but to me it’s hard to
comprehend.
Oh no! Vectorman wants
me dead. But why? I thought we were friends. After destroying the ball swing,
flying ball worm attack me with the same pattern as that flying worm Valvalion.
When the ball worm defeated, Vectorman attacks me. I mean seriously. What does
it look like other than Vectorman? It has humanoid structure consists of balls
and running.
Next section is pretty cool.
Basically, boss rush but the bosses have different method than the first encounter. Plus, you can see remaining boss on the foreground as if they monitor me.
First is Pink’s henchmen riding another walker robot that can only run left and
right, not using gun ever. I destroyed it but one of Pink’s henchmen grows some
bravery and want to kill me with minigun that used to be in the robot. Nice
try. But you can’t hit me if you don’t aim low.
I sent the schmuck flies into
deeper part of outer space. Now is Pink’s turn with crab robot. It can shoot
bubbles but I can hit them along with the robot if I crawl like this. Stop
flexing your muscle, Orange! Seriously.
Now is captain Orange’s turn.
He retains his ability to do fast shoulder charge plus jumping up and down
platform. Also shoot energy burst upward. However, he still has same weakness
of “can’t do much if the player hanging under platform”.
Mr. Black ditches his own
stupid idea of “board and dice” crap with just fill screen with blue orb and
laser. Two can play the same game. I happen to have this rapid shot + blue
laser combination that makes laser shot that can aim all angle. Kind of similar
to Browny’s enhanced shoot A in Contra Hardcorp.
Green’s turn is now. He
doesn’t do that seven force thingy. Instead, he throws shuriken and approach me
either to kick or throw. He also has ability to shield my bullets. Strangely,
he has big similarity with Redumber from Gunmaster.
In really unexpected turn of
event, the gems become alive and defeated the villain boss. So, I chase them to
next room.
The final boss is this thing
called Golden Silver. What kind of name is that? There’s no silver thing made
of golden or vice versa. That doesn’t make any sense. Don’t let the imposing
figure tricks you. His weak point is the gems. You have to shoot them to
whittle his health.
He can make trail of fire
that travel along the floor and explodes on wall. Then he can shoot out
explosion from his fingers. It goes without saying that he can throw you if
you’re near him so stay away from him.
This big bastard doesn’t
appreciate my personal space and I hate him for that. Fortunately, when his
health low enough he retreats to background and the gems replaces him on
fighting me. I believe each gem does something distinctively but I can only
spot 2 of them. The grey gem will shoot rapidly at my torso height with the
same projectile as rapid + homing exactly like what I have here. Red gem will
constantly spray flame in circular motion. Since Golden Silver is no longer
actively chasing after me, this part of the fight feels easier.
After defeated, Golden Silver
escapes. We chase him. The boss villain realizes the error thing he did which
is awakening Golden Silver the destructor. He and his henchmen chase him but
immediately obliterated, leaving their dead bodies float on space. That’s
tragic sight reminds me of our family used to keep fishes as pet and suddenly
died one by one until none survive.
Blue complains how we can do
something to stop this Destroyer that our weapon is gone. Excuse me? I believe
my gun is still on my hand just fine. Why we suddenly have no weapon now? But
then Green comes into the scene. He apologizes for his betrayal due to
imperial’s brainwashing. The he rams into the destroyer in full speed.
Then the credit roll, leaving
me dumbfounded with same expression as Abarenbou Gel. That was so sudden and
unusual. Time to wrap things up, I guess.
Treasure’s Gunstar Heroes
(1993) is very distinctive run n gun game. But is it good? To some extent, I
guess? Sorry if you expect me flaring up and praising this game with song and
such. But I have to be honest here as little-bit-professional reviewer. One
main problem is enemies are big damage sponge. Looking at Contra Hardcops lots
of enemies can be taken by single shot which is irony because I heard
Treasure’s staffs are used to work at Konami. Enemies have giant capability to
take damage is acceptable if the player has option to deal bigger damage for
example: in Cuphead where you have super shot or EX shot at your disposal or
Megaman where you can deal critical damage to robot master if you use correct
weapon. There’s combination weapon but that’s still not enough firepower in my
opinion. If sub-bosses/bosses’ health cut in half, the game will be better. I
think the worst part of the game either be seven force or Dice Palace. Then the
game like to kick me harshly into the action before I can tell what’s going on
or what situation I am in. There’s no moment where I’m allowed to parse
anything in the screen first. In that regard, the game felt like super chaotic.
Compared to Contra Hardcorps, they give me just enough a brief moment before
crazy action begins in reasonable pace. The game has distinctive personality, I
give it that. Treasure tried to make the game memorable and such although sadly
the music is not so memorable. The weapon feels lackluster in power especially
because sub-bosses/bosses are very tanky. Even though there’s no multiple way
projectile, the weaponry is quite alright. I feel like the flamethrower is
really weak compared to in Gunforce. I think you should avoid it.
Although flamethrower + rapid shot combination is fire shot that makes
explosion on contact. Flamethrower + homing shot combination makes fire shot
that you can control with direction, which feels funny. I appreciate that the
game implements health system instead of one-hit death but it will be better if
the game drops more health item. It’s not arcade game so I don’t see the reason
why it’s so stingy with health item and also the harsh difficulty. With the big
game field, the game should implement double jump instead of flying tackle or
whatever is that jumping attack. The story is well told but the ending feels
really abrupt and leaves me dumbfounded.
I don’t think Gunstar Heroes (1993) gets my
recommendation. Not because it’s bad. It’s more because the chance you already
play this game is really high unless you grow up with SNES, maybe? I can
recommend this game to my big brother at least. I will talk about it with him
when I get the chance. Another thing that I can do is remove a vertical shmup
game so Gunstar Heroes can have a spot in My Top Sega Genesis games list. But I
won’t tell you the ranking until the time has come. It’s above #81. That’s for
sure.
