Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)

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.