Those gamers in the early 1990s who owned a Sega Genesis had access to a very special treat: a game by the name of Gunstar Heroes. While this side-scrolling shooter/platformer definitely bears a strong resemblance to earlier games of its type, such as Contra, it has enough uniqueness and strength to stand on its own as an all time classic. This week on the Uncommon Geek, join me for another trip down memory lane, with a review of Gunstar Heroes!
First, before you read any further, listen to the title screen music for this game. If that doesn’t get you pumped, you may want to stop reading this post right now.
So you’ve listened to it and are ready to rock now? Excellent.
The original Gunstar Heroes was released in 1993, and was developed by Treasure. This was the first game developed by that company, and what a way to make an entrance into the gaming industry! Through the years, Treasure has been responsible for bringing us other great titles, such as Dynamite Headdy, Bangai-O, and Ikaruga, but I personally consider the original Gunstar Heroes to be their crowning achievement to date.
One of the most interesting things that grabbed me right away about this game, was that you aren’t forced to play the initial levels in any particular order. This non-linear approach is refreshing. Also, you are given a choice between one of four starting weapons: Chaser, Fire, Force, and Lightning, each its own unique characteristics. What is really awesome is that each level has opportunities to pick up additional weapons, and you can combine two of them to make a new super-weapon. There are a total of 14 possible weapon configurations, that suit a variety of playstyles, and have differing strengths and weaknesses against certain bosses and enemy types. On top of that, there are two different control types from which to choose: Free Shot and Fixed Shot. With Free Shot, you can fire and run at the same time. In Fixed Shot (my preferred style), you are planted when firing. These options may not sound like that big of a deal, but in practice they add a huge amount of variety and strategy to the gameplay, especially when you factor in two player co-op.
Gunstar Red battles the boss Seven Force
Gunstar Heroes is replete with boss battles, big and small, presenting the player with great variety and challenge. Arguably the most famous of these is Seven Force, a boss that attacks the Gunstars in a mine shaft with up to seven different, distinct forms. Another boss, Smash Daisaku (who strongly resembles M. Bison from the Street Fighter series), harasses the Gunstars throughout multiple levels, while unintentionally providing comic relief to the player(s).
Aside from the boss battles, another great aspect of Gunstar Heroes that keeps the game exciting and fresh, is the creative level design. There is the aforementioned mine level, which has the Gunstars riding on advanced mine carts that let the player ride upside down or right-side up; a flying battleship; a chase through space; and of course, my personal favorite, Black’s Dice Palace, which subjects the Gunstars to a random selection of boards and bosses to battle through.
The Dice Palace
The story of Gunstar Heroes isn’t overly complicated, and the brief intro, as well as some exposition in the levels themselves, is all that is really needed to get the point across. However, it is worth noting that there is a difference between the story background given in the instruction manual (you know, back in the day when instruction manuals were actually manuals and told part of the story?) from the Japanese version, and the one presented in the Western version. The Japanese version is considered to be the proper one, and is the one presented in game, and that is what I prefer to go by as well. In the Western manual mistranslation, a distantly future Earth became Gunstar 9, Dr. Brown (to me, clearly named and modeled after Dr. Emmett Brown from Back To the Future) became Professor White, and the final boss, Golden Silver, was not referred to as the God of Ruin, nor mentioned as an Earth superweapon meant to level entire cities at a time.
In my opinion, the original version of Gunstar Heroes is a game with basically no discernible flaws. The gameplay, physics, and graphics are all among the very best that the Genesis had to offer. Like the best games of its era, Gunstar Heroes has tremendous replay value, and also shows stupendous gameplay depth despite having only 3 buttons to utilize. Players can slide, jump kick, swing, bodyslam, even throw each other into enemies, all with just a d-pad and 3 Genesis gamepad buttons. The soundtrack is awesome, especially boss music like this. The variety and pacing of the levels is exemplary, the action is ferocious, explosive, and challenging, and the replay value is extraordinarily high, especially in co-op.
Gunstar Heroes has of course been re-released several times since the Genesis era, most recently on Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Network. The latter two versions sadly have integrated an unfortunate flaw in the two player co-op; in the new, downloadable versions, the second player in a co-op game cannot rejoin in the middle of a level if their character dies, at the expense of some of the surviving player’s health. This adds some unnecessary frustration, but isn’t a game-breaker.
Like Sonic the Hedgehog, Gunstar Heroes is a game that is near and dear to my retro gaming heart. My cousin and I played countless hours of co-op in this game when it was first released, but it never, ever got old. It is one of the very best shooters of all time, and is definitely one of the greatest gems of the Genesis era. I certainly, in my personal ranking, put it up there with all time classic side-scrolling shooters such as Contra and R-Type. If you have a Genesis, an emulator, an Xbox 360, or a PlayStation 3, and you like great action games, there is basically no reason for you to not own this title.
FIN
Disclaimer: Main image courtesy of http://www.wikipedia.org. Other images were pulled from http://www.google.com image searches; these images may have appeared on other blog sites or reviews, and I claim no ownership of them. All images are for entertainment and informational purposes only. Gunstar Heroes, and related characters and properties are copyrights of Treasure and Sega. No copyright infringement is intended.
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