Today is the 7th birthday of my blog. So, it’s time for another special showcase. Usually I don’t like 2D Beat em up game. Because in 2D plane, I’m restricted in my mobility or move. No way to dodge other than jump. Plus, monotonous combat. But here’s the exception: Metro’s Gunmaster (1994), which is rather obscured arcade game.
I say the title screen is
pretty dynamic. First there’s the line of antagonist and ends with our hero:
The titular Gunmasters. Then title get shot. Too bad, my review is just picture
and writing so I can’t show you how awesome the music in this title screen. In
fact, I reckon overall music is freaking good. Atmospheric, energic, and
amazing. You can listen full ost here.
Ost is top notch, don't you agree? Of course, not only the music is incredible but also the gameplay. But don’t you want to know what’s the backstory first before going to the action? Don’t worry, it’s not slogging wall of text.
The only part that is closest to the backstory is this snippet at the demonstration mode. This winged demon leads those soldiers for world conquest or something. Certainly not for charity work like building shelter for cats and dogs or cleaning nearby neighborhood. Enough for the prologue, let’s pump some credit and get to play!
So, there’s me. The red-haired gunmaster. The 2nd player is the other Gunmaster: the blue-haired lass. My enemy bring sword and you know what happen to bringing sword into gunfight, right? The control is…I let the professor and the medieval drill sergeant explain it to you in detail.
You probably surprised with how vast the moveset is with just 2 action buttons. So, we got punch (that can be chained into 3-hit combo), throw, sliding kick, anti-air move (Sky Attack), special shoot (Moon Fire), and so on. All of them with just 2 buttons! And some with combination of joystick move, naturally. There’s also the secret special move called Bloody dance but neither of the professor nor the drill sergeant know how to do it. We will save that for much much later. Basically, joystick to move Gunmaster around. Pulling down on joystick to crouch. First button to punch/shoot/throw. While second button to jump. For now, I beat the first enemy: Soldier Ore.
I don’t usually like juggling enemy but Soldier Ore happen to be easy to get juggled with just punch combo in the corner. Look at those lazy soldiers hesitate to help their leader. Finally, one of them decides to hit me from the back after I defeat his leader! These soldiers deserve dishonorable discharge.
After defeating Soldier Ore, you get to choose your opponent in any order you desired. Kind of like in any Mega Man game. To be more precise Mega Man: Power Battle, because there’s no platforming level and straight into boss battle. However, there’s a catch. The later the order, the stronger the enemy. Don’t let that star level fools you. 1 star doesn’t mean easy enemy. Conversely, 3 stars doesn’t mean hard enemy. I recommend for the first pick is either Cancer that I highlighted or Redumber who’s below them. I take Cancer for now.
There’s the Cancer robot. Jauntily and mechanically walk sideway. In this boss battle, everyone is constantly walk including the Gunmaster thus I can’t either slide or block. Sometime Cancer try to jump on me. So, how do I dodge that? Luckily, dash attack (2 x forward + jump button) is viable in any situation including in this auto-scrolling level. Although the input for dash attack using jump button instead of attack button which is pretty unusual, it works intuitively.
Not only try to jump on you, The Cancer robot can blow bubbles and throw one of its pincers. Also don’t try to approach it because it will automatically grab and throw you away. The best way to deal damage to the robot is using the “Moon Fire” move. There’s plot building in the background when Cancer’s health is half, the zeppelin will fire its cannon to the city and set it aflame.
When the Cancer Robot is destroyed, the pilots fly away to safety. I like the female pilot waving white flag while escaping. She had enough.
Cancer’s box is riddled with bullet holes, now. I will go to Redumber.
Redumber is related to the Cancer’s pilots because they wear same fashion: ninja’s cloth with grey mouth mask. Maybe he’s their big brother or something. I finished this game several time that I know the fact that all of the boss (except the final boss) has name from either horoscope or gem. But never in my life, figuring out what Redumber’s name based from. The closest thing that I can think of is Red Amber. Anyway, Redumber is in cave with magma that unfortunately isn’t active hurting the player unlike in most platforming game. Thankfully. For some reason there’s piglet resides in this dangerous place. They run left and right and if you’re not careful they will hurt you. But you can cook them with your gun, turning them into small roast pig. Useful for health refill within this heated battle.
Here's what makes Redumber is obnoxious to fight: this shield jutsu. If you approach him while his shield is on, you will get knocked away. Shooting it even with the special Moon Fire, does nothing. I try to move to his back but he will jump around like crazy and if I happen to be near him while he’s jumping, he will perform air throw at me. But at least he turns off his annoying shield which makes him more vulnerable. Besides air throw and shield, he can also fire blue crescent projectile. 2 of it. On top of that, there’s 4 golden soldiers back him up. Golden soldier is the strongest of its kin after the Soldier Ore. Needless to say that there’s replacement soldier after you defeat one. So constantly defeating the soldiers is not a good idea.
Finally, I defeat him and I can keep punching him while he’s knocked out cold. Heavy_meleeing03.wav
I reckon Aquarius also dangerous so I better deal with him next. You probably think “But he’s just calm old man”. But you see, he has 3 stars difficulty level, that’s enough evidence that you should not take him lightly just because he’s look like happy pensioner with fulfilling life and surrounded by lovely grandchildren. My big brother’s horoscope is Aquarius. His demeanor is calm and like to sleep around. So that tracks.
Aquarius often flying above
and throwing sea urchins from his center cannon. I’m glad I have invincibility
while I’m throwing his goons at him. Believe it or not that throwing soldiers
at him is more damaging than the normal gun shoot. Moreover, I can aim the
throw direction with my joystick except when the goon that I throw is dying.
Besides with shooting your gun or chucking his goon, you can deal with him with
the anti-air move. Jumping kick also viable way to damage him.
I can’t believe myself punching old man in the crotch but I really hate him. Engineer_specialcompleted11.wav
I think Virgo also dangerous so I tackle her next!
Unlike Aquarius riding on mechanized vessel, Virgo turns herself into mechanical by possessing the holy statue in the center and breaking it in process. Virgo’s fight probably the closest to versus fighting game if not for her golden soldier backup.
Oh look! He does Blanka’s rolling attack but with sword. Despite the game title “Gunmaster”, the most damaging method that the Gunmaster have is: the punch combo. Especially combined with the combo finishing uppercut. As for what Virgo can do is: sliding kick, jumping kick, and when you get to close she can throw you away like bag of thrash.
Virgo can also conjure magic mirror to block projectile. But as you can see the mirror knocked away when hit by the Moon Fire so you can follow up your attack. Significantly fairer than Redumber that has perfect turtling defensive move.
I decide Aries is for the 6th battle. She looks harmless, right? But Aquarius too. So you know what she has for the fight.
Yup. She also has mechanized vessel. In her case, it’s supposed to be ram. Ram’s horn maybe dangerous but she thinks one step ahead by installing cannon on the ram’s head. As you can see, I’m cornered by her bombardment and also her soldiers. Yup. My prediction she’s difficult, is on point.
When she’s not on the ground, she changes her vessel into ball and bouncing around, causing rocks fall. I just realize that the falling rocks can be destroyed with my gun. So, I can shoot at either Aries or rock that falls directly on my head.
I can bounce on her vessel like on a trampoline while shooting down at her. But this is not optimal way to inflict damage on her.
Oh, I see. The best way to defeat her is to get close and unleash punch combo. The solution is pretty simple actually. I prefer punch her vessel in the back rather then in front just in case the ram’s head can hurt me.
7th battle is against Tolmarine (which I believe to be Tourmaline) who is sexy anime witch. Are you going to fight or just posing for fashion show like that forever?
Like in Redumber’s stage, there’s piglet that you can eat later to refill your health in the middle of battle. They look both cute and delicious. Anyway, Tolmarine can sliding kick, anti-air kick, and dropping jump kick like what Gunmaster can do. However, she’s powered with witchy magic whereas Gunmasters are powered with true power of justice.
Nonetheless, her main gimmick/feature is she charging giant purple magic orb that can cover her and afterward she will launch it in your general direction. The lower her health the bigger the magic orb. You can block or flank her from either top or bottom platform.
On one of attempt, I take too much time dealing with Tolmarine that the timer runs out and this menacing knight closing on me slowly. So slow that I get defeated by Tolmarine first before he can reach me.
Scout_taunts18.wav. Funnily enough, I defeat her with my kick when I’m climbing to top platform. Although it looks cool, but this move is for mobility purpose and not mainly for attacking.
In case you wonder how the Gunmasters travel between their adversaries. As you can see in this brief intermission that they travel with blue dragon. They look cute. :)
My next opponent is Turquiose (“Turquoise” misspelled). This old man’s main gimmick is his ready stance can block any attack so you can’t attack him first and ask question later. Wait for him to charge at you or perform anti-air slash. Block or dodge his attack then you can successfully land a hit on him.
Next opponent is Capricornus.
He’s flamboyant mug. My horoscope is Capricornus and I’m nowhere similar to
this git being charismatic while carrying red rose and arrogant. Maybe there’s
arrogant part within me but I’m not flamboyant. That’s for sure.
Much like Virgo, Capricornus change into his mechanized self which is Armored goat with body and tail consists of metallic spheres. He should belong to shmup game, in my opinion. This particular fight tests your ability to climb ceiling and wall. Also execute moon fire as many as possible. I didn’t know before that I can execute moon fire move while I cling into wall. Don’t bother to use melee attack against him because he’s covered by the sphere tail. Your limbs are too short to reach him. Either use standard shoot or Moon fire shoot.
He can shoot fireballs from his center core. But the most dangerous attack is when he charges on entire screen with 2-3 patterns. The easy way to deal with that is blocking but you will get several chip damages. Avoid him with crouch, slide, jump, or climb on either ceiling or wall in perfect timing.
For next boss, I pick Leo. Cancer’s stage is constantly running whereas Leo’s stage is constantly falling. I also can’t slide or block. Again, dash attack is your best bet to avoid most attacks here. The winged mechanical lion can spit 2 types of fireballs: 1) Blue fireballs with fixed pattern. 2) Red fireballs that homing on you with more quantity than the blue ones. You can shoot the former safely but you can’t do the same with the latter because there are too much of them. Note that with the standard shoot, you can only have 2 projectiles and there’s holstering animation after shooting. So, there’s slight inconvenience in shooting mechanic. Plus, each bullet doesn’t do damage as much as single punch. Nevertheless, the shooting move is quite essential.
Once in a while, Leo charging at you. Once you avoid his melee attack, you can punish his failed attack with anti-air kick.
I destroyed his mechanical ride so he won’t safe from that fall. Meanwhile I have my dragon that ready to catch me. Sucks to be you!
I pick Gemini for the 11th fight and I regret this decision. As you can see, they cornered me and there’s so little I can do to get out of this corner. Their tactic is: they slowly approach me from ceiling and ground level. The one on ceiling moves faster and will try to jump on me. While the one on ground level will prepare to throw his arm. I try to pass the ground Gemini by using the usual dash kick but I get knocked away by his spinning arm. Heavy_negativevocalization06.wav
I shoot the fire moon projectile at them and only one of them that takes the hit. This is freaking non-sense! >:C
I can do air grab at ceiling Gemini throw him at ground Gemini which gives me slight breather plus the throw deals big damage. On early order, Geminis have less health and do “rubbing on the knee injury” animation more often so I thought Gemini can be placed in later order. I was wrong. Then I discover the way that’s the best I can do to escape the from the corner. I have to climb on the wall, baiting the ground Gemini to throw his arm high then I can slip past him with well-timing sliding kick. Note: sometime they exchange the role of ceiling and ground. That fact can determine which one will go down first.
Once one of the Geminis defeated, the fight will be much easier. Now I can unleash punch combo at remaining Gemini and the fight is over quickly.
Next battle is another duo fight. This time with Pearl and Onyx. By the way, the game reuses this pre-battle screen with the Geminis. The pairs kind of same to me. So, it may imply that Pearl and Onyx rely on cold hard robot while ditching their hand axe. Wise thinking, I say.
You may think they’re easy opponent just because they have axe while Gunmasters have gun. You probably wrong because when they do charge move right here, they’re immune to any projectile. This is where the heel drop move come in handy. You jump over them and immediately do the downward jump kick.
They also have downward jump attack which is body press. They can also do anti-air headbutt, lunging axe slash, and headbutt grab. But the one where you have to be careful the most is the charge attack. It’s very fast and make them immune to projectile.
Next, I pick Taurus. As you can see, he’s not here. Only 2 soldiers here.
Taurus will fall as soon as you defeat those 2 soldiers from before. As you can guess from Taurus the bull, his most dangerous attack is the bull charge that can’t be blocked.
Taurus has roughly the same routine with Aries but simpler. He jumps around and does the bull charge. The best way to defeat him also similar which is get close and unleash punch combo. But you have to be careful with his tail that sometime become spiked.
Finally, we are on our way to final battle which takes place in Castle there. Its position is the opposite with Start area which is inhabited by Soldier Ore. I realize too late that not all constellation presents in this game. I notice there’s no Pisces, Scorpio, or Sagittarius. Oh, well. There’s no time mourn over their absence, because it’s time for the final battle!
The final boss is Queen Dia who I assume lead the soldiers and all those warriors/mechanized beings/mecha pilots with name of various gem and constellation. Also, I believe she piloted the Aries robot. The demon from prologue is nowhere to be seen. Yet. The fearsome knight is here and he acts as Queen’s bpdyguard. Much to his surprise, The Queen betrays him, repelling him away. This betrayal may work in my favor because I don’t need to deal with the knight here.
Because she’s on the very last order, Queen Dia is supposed to be the hardest boss. However, finishing this game several times help me understand this final battle. Because she’s always in same order, I feel like her difficulty is consistent. The final battle is neither easier nor harder than it is. Queen Dia never makes me cornered unjustly unlike Geminis. I wish I fight them way early. Queen Dia has the same random teleportation ability much like Dracula in Castlevania. Each time she teleports, she will unleash ranged magic attack either series of magic orbs or line of ground explosion. That’s your cue to jump in into her majesty’s private space and unleash the punch combo.
I have some experience with fighting game so my instinct always tells me to jump kick like here. But it’s not advisable here. If you land jump kick into her and then do the combo, the queen only takes up to 2 hits of the combo before knocked away. Missing the uppercut part which is the most powerful part of the combo. So, you have to suppress the urgency to kick your highness in the face while jumping into her vicinity.
When Queen Dia’s health is at 50% or lower, she will try to mix her routine by adding teleport in mid-air and cast rain of magic stars. If you’re fast enough, you can stand directly below her and execute anti-air kick.
By the way during her teleports in and out, she’s invincible and knock you away if you are near her. She doesn’t have anti-air move but if you are too slow on jumping in, she will cast this teleport magic and move somewhere else while also harming you.
Should you manage to defeat Queen Dia. It’s revealed that she was possessed by the winged demon in prologue then he flies away. Due to the absence of his name, you can call him Satan or Devil. But I want to call him Prologue Demon.
But don’t worry! We defeat him in post-credit scene. Every enemy that I defeat join me chasing the prologue demon and we blast him together in unison, killing him. So, the peace is restored and (hopefully) Queen Dia cease the invasion. Either you feel relieved that you don’t have to face (possibly) hard garbage boss fight or this feels anticlimactic because the true final boss is defeated in epilogue scene. Do those former enemies know about (presumably) strange act of Queen Dia when she declares the invasion? If they have some health sense, they probably suspicious that some evil being possessed her but won’t participate in her evil campaign. My guess is they’re all brainwashed by the prologue demon while he possessing your majesty. They can see the error of their way once their brainwash is gone with all those beating and gunshot from me. Well done, me. Huzzah! Engineer_positivevocalization01.wav
As for those soldiers, they just follow her order otherwise they don’t get paid. Stupid gits.
But before I put an end to this special anniversary article, I like to show you the Bloody Dance move which we know the input from the credit screen. The input is kind of obnoxious but doable: up, forward, down, back, forward + jump button. The key to successfully pull this out is, to do the input quite slowly as opposed to do it fast like what you do in any Fighting game. Bloody dance move looks like super move but it doesn’t cost anything. Perhaps the catch besides the complex input command, is: how slow the start up is. The Gunmaster gives the dirty look forward for seconds and then rolling forward (which makes him vulnerable to projectile). I think I’m done here.
Metro’s Gunmaster (1994) is truly enigma to me. As I have said before that I usually don’t like 2D beat em up game. Perhaps the vast moveset what makes the game feels good from other 2D beat em up game. You already have vast moveset from get go like in Capcom’s Aliens Vs Predator and the moves are intuitive to pull out. Some people complaint that the game lacks of dodging move because it’s way ahead of its time where proper 2D dodging mechanism is not invented yet and I can see that. The only way to dodge attack is by jumping, sliding, or kick dashing. Do note that Sliding is executed by holding the joystick diagonal down. Because if you holding the joystick straight down and press jump, you jump down the platform instead. Each boss fight feels distinct (except Soldier ore because he’s tutorial/practice boss). Cancer’s fight takes place in auto-running stage. Leo’s fight takes place in auto-falling stage. Some test your shooting skill and makes you less rely on melee. Some test your melee skill and makes you less rely on shooting. Turquiose teaches you to dodge/block then counter attack. And so forth. You may notice that some boss fights have backup goons while other don’t. You may find them annoying because they may sneakily hit you while you’re focus on the boss. But on the other hand, they can be powerful makeshift projectile against the boss. In some boss fight, you can keep punching defeated boss for raking score or just simply vent your frustration. Perhaps you may encounter soft lock if you choose opponent in inefficient order. But you can learn the efficient order from my playthrough and for the love of God, fight Gemini first! They are aggressively cornering you in unfair manner. Some stage has bird or piglet that you can cook to perfection with your gun and later become delicious food item. The Gunmasters have rather large degree of mobility. They can slide, climb wall or ceiling, dash, etc. But some moves are quite slow like the gun holstering animation or climbing into upper platform. There’s no functional difference between the Gunmasters. Only in graphic difference. For example: the male gunmaster does dashing kick whereas the female one does dashing cape swipe. As I mentioned before that the music is very fantastic while the sound effect is great. The graphic is awesome. Although the game reuse animation shooting while grabbing on ceiling when I shoot the gun in Cancer’s and Leo’s stage, which looks weird.
Gunmaster (1994) is a must play arcade game. Although there’s some flaw and soft lock potency if you pick opponent in not efficient way. But you can mitigate the latter problem by playing the game with another player. Increasing your life (up to 2) via dipswitch setting also helps. The game is 2D plane consists of mainly boss fights and with wonderful music which similar to Cuphead. It predates the phenomenal 2D shooter platformer game by 23 years! Gunmaster also has similarity with Treasure’s Gunstar Heroes but with simpler gun and fighting command input. I definitely recommend you to play this game if you’re fans of action shooter.
I don’t have anything else to say other than thank you very much to read my blogger here. I’m not planning to give up on writing yet and hopefully keep writing in far future.
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