Gunstar Heroes

Gunstar Heroes

North American cover art
Developer(s) Treasure
M2 (GG)
Publisher(s) Sega
Producer(s) Masato Maegawa
Designer(s) Yoshiyuki Matsumoto
Hideyuki Suganami
Programmer(s) Mitsuru Yaida
Hideyuki Suganami
Artist(s) Tetsuhiko Kikuchi
Hiroshi Iuchi
Composer(s) Norio Hanzawa
Platform(s) Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear
Release date(s)

Genesis

  • NA September 9, 1993
  • JP September 10, 1993
  • EU October 1993[1]

Game Gear

  • JP March 24, 1995
Genre(s) Run and gun
Mode(s) Single player, cooperative

Gunstar Heroes (ガンスターヒーローズ Gansutā Hīrōzu) is a run & gun shooter video game developed by Treasure and published by Sega. Treasure's debut game was originally released on the Sega Genesis in late 1993, and later on, ported to the Game Gear by M2. On February 23, 2006, Gunstar Heroes was released as part of the Gunstar Heroes: Treasure Box Collection for the PlayStation 2. It is also available on the Wii's Virtual Console. In 2009, it was released on June 10 for Xbox Live Arcade and June 11 for PlayStation Network. In 2015, a 3D Classics version was released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. It has been listed among the best video games of all time by various publications.

Gameplay

Co-op gameplay in stage one

Gunstar Heroes is a side scrolling shooter. The player has four weapons to choose from, and these four can be combined in pairs to create an additional 10 weapons, for a total of 14. In addition to the weapons, the player can engage enemies in close quarters combat. It is possible to grab and toss enemies, perform sliding and jumping attacks and a long-range skid.

Unlike most games in the genre, the player has a life total calculated in numbers. Death to a player requires multiple hits but just one death will issue the option to continue from the start of the level or to end the game. Players have unlimited continues. The main highlight of the game are its boss encounters, which often feature large enemies made up of multiple sprites allowing for fluid movement.

Gunstar Heroes features four basic weapon types: Force, a powerful shot that fires rapidly; Lightning, a straight shot that goes through enemies; Chaser, which homes in on enemies; and Flame, a shot that is very effective at close range.[2] By combining two weapons, a new weapon can be formed. For example, combining Lightning and Chaser gives a homing lightning beam attack.

Plot

The Western version of the game storyline is different from the Japanese version. In both storylines, there is a God-like but evil robot, Golden Silver, that has the potential to cause extreme ruin. Through the efforts of the Gunstar family (twin brothers Red and Blue, sister Yellow, and older brother Green), the four gems that were Golden Silver's power source were taken and hidden. However, the vicious dictator Colonel Red (called "General Gray" in the Japanese storyline) used a mind control machine to enslave Gunstar Green and make him obey Red's orders. From this, Colonel Red has amassed all four gems again and hopes to reactivate Golden Silver, who Red falsely believes to be a bringer of utopia. The player controls Gunstar Red or Blue (or both in a two-player game) through several different environments to recover all four gems, fighting lots of small enemies and bosses along the way, as well as facing three of Red's lieutenants and the mind controlled Green, who fails to kill his brothers but escapes after they defeat his powerful, shapeshifting robot, the Seven Force.

Afterwards, the player finds out that Colonel Red kidnapped Gunstar Yellow and Gunstar Red and Blue set off to save her, but after finding Yellow, the player is forced to give them gems to Colonel Red for her life, whereupon the Colonel sets off in a large spacecraft for the moon Gunstar 9 (G-9) where Golden Silver is located. Yellow is freed and the player pilots a small but fast spacecraft through space, once again dealing with enemies and bosses. After Gunstar Red and Blue arrive on G-9 and fight several previous boss characters, the gems turn against Colonel Red and Golden Silver is activated. The player must destroy the gems. If this is done successfully, Colonel Red will attempt to stop Golden Silver, only to get himself destroyed in the process. The Gunstar family becomes concerned about the threat posed by Golden Silver, but Gunstar Green, no longer under enemy control, makes amends for the trouble he caused by attempting to sacrifice himself to finally destroy Golden Silver, though it is revealed that his brothers managed to save him at the last second.

Characters

Release

According to former Sega of America producer Mac Senour, Treasure's Gunstar Heroes was rejected by twelve of Sega's producers and associate producers, primarily because of its small sprites, before he decided to pick it up and get the game released. He also revealed that he "made only one real change. There's a boss in a military uniform, and in the original version he was Hitler. I asked them to remove the mustache or change the character."[3]

Shortly after its original release, Gunstar Heroes made its way to Sega's handheld machine, Game Gear. The port was handled not by Treasure, but by development house M2. As the console's power could not be matched to that of the Mega Drive, the game was significantly scaled down, stripping its multi-player mode, Black's Dice Maze, and several graphic effects. It does, however, add in a few new features such as a jetpack level and the chance to drive one of the later walker robots from the 16-bit version. The game received a PC port on December 17, 2004 as a part of the Sega Honpo series, titled "Sega Game Honpo Gunstar Heroes" (セガゲーム本舗 ガンスターヒーローズ).

On October 6, 2005, Treasure and Sega released Gunstar Super Heroes, a Gunstar title for the Game Boy Advance. The game makes a few changes to the gameplay, such as having a fixed weapon selection and the addition of 'super' attacks controlled by the trigger. In addition, it presents itself as a distant sequel to the original, but the levels and bosses are remixed and thus gets labeled as a "retelling." On February 23, 2006, Sega released a Treasure-oriented entry in their Sega Ages series for PlayStation 2. Titled Treasure Box (トレジャーボックス toreja bokkusu), it contains Gunstar Heroes prominently (to the extent of it being on the front cover), along with Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier. Treasure Box also contains the various versions of these titles (such as Game Gear versions, versions from different countries and a Japanese prototype, which is essentially a near-final game lacking some polish and functional end stages), as well as digital manuals and other bonus materials.

Gunstar Heroes was released December 11, 2006 in North America on the Wii Virtual Console and December 15, 2006 in Europe. A version for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network was released on June 10, and June 11 in 2009, respectively, with online co-op, leaderboards, and 'improved graphics' via smoothing. However, both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions have reported that the co-op feature is a step backwards from the original, due to the inability to rejoin your partner upon death. Gunstar Heroes debuted on the iOS platform on November 22, 2010. It received a Steam release on January 26, 2011. On September 19, 2012, Gunstar Heroes: Treasure Box was released on the PlayStation Network in Japan.[4]

3D Gunstar Heroes was developed by M2 as part of the 3D Classics series of games for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan on June 24, 2015,[5] with a release in North America, Europe and Australia on August 20, 2015.[6] It is redesigned to be played with the stereoscopic 3D effects of the 3DS and features two new gameplay modes: Mega Life, which doubles the lives each player has in stock, and All Spec, which allows the player to choose any combination of weapons they want.[7]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings95%[8]
Metacritic96%[9]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[10]
CVG92%[11]
EGM36/40[12]
Eurogamer[13]
GameFan197/200[14]
GamePro5/5[15]
GamesMaster90%[1]
GameSpy10/10[16]
IGN9/10[17]
Nintendo Life9/10[18]
Nintendo World Report9.5/10[19]
Mean Machines Sega93%[20]
MegaTech95%[21]
Retro Magazine[22]
Sega Force94%[23]
Sega Magazine94%[24]
Awards
PublicationAward
GameFan MegawardsGame of the Year,
Best Action/Platform Game,
Best Music (Genesis)[25]
Electronic Gaming MonthlyBest Action Game,[26]
Game of the Month[12]
MegaTechHyper Game

Gunstar Heroes was awarded Best Action Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.[26] MegaTech magazine praised the animation and speed of gameplay, and could not think of any downsides to the game.[21]

Retro Gamer often praised the game in its print edition, and also included it among the top ten Mega Drive games in its online version, describing it as an "outrageously good platformer/shooter that features dazzling graphics, a crazy relentless pace and dozens of fantastic boss encounters," featuring "astounding visuals" and "all manner of interesting play mechanics to ensure that every level remains as fresh as a proverbial daisy. If you're after a frenetic blaster then look no further. This is run-n-gun heaven and shouldn't be missed."[27] They furthermore included it among the Game Gear's top ten list as well.[28]

Gunstar Heroes has been listed among the best video games of all time by the following publications: Electronic Gaming Monthly (in 1997,[29] 2001[30] and 2006[31]), GameFAQs (in 2004,[32] 2005[33] and 2009[34]), Guinness World Records,[35] IGN (in 2003[36] and 2005[37]), NowGamer,[38] and Retro Gamer.[39]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 GamesMaster, episode 43 (series 3, episode 7), 21/10/1993
  2. ↑ Gunstar Heroes: Weapons Details, Game Informer 181 (May 2008): 105.
  3. ↑ "Sega-16 – Interview: Mac Senour". Sega-16.com. 2013-10-23. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  4. ↑ "Gunstar Heroes hits XBLA and PSN on June 10th and 11th". Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  5. ↑ "3D ガンスターヒーローズ". セガ 3D復刻プロジェクト (in Japanese). SEGA. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Brian (August 14, 2015). "Update: Official confirmation – 3D Gunstar Heroes hitting the 3DS eShop next week". Nintendo Everything. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "3D Gunstar Heroes Brings New Modes and Local Co-Op to 3DS". Retrieved 2015-06-24.
  8. ↑ "3D Gunstar Heroes for 3DS". GameRankings. 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  9. ↑ "3D Gunstar Heroes for 3DS Reviews - Metacritic". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on August 30, 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  10. ↑ Marriott, Scott Alan. "Gunstar Heroes". Allgame. Archived from the original on February 9, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  11. ↑ Computer and Video Games, issue 142 (September 1993), pages 38-40
  12. 1 2 Electronic Gaming Monthly, issue 52 (November 1993), page 38
  13. ↑ "3D Gunstar Heroes 3DS Review: Sega's Pride and Joy, Now Nintendo's Shining Star". USgamer. 2015-08-27. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  14. ↑ GameFan, volume 1, issue 10 (September 1993)
  15. ↑ GamePro, issue 55 (February 1994), page 52
  16. ↑ "Classic Review Archive - Gunstar Heroes". Web.archive.org. 2007-12-14. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  17. ↑ "Gunstar Heroes Virtual Console Review". IGN. 2006-12-11. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  18. ↑ Town, Jonathan (2015-08-20). "3D Gunstar Heroes Review - 3DS eShop". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  19. ↑ "3D Gunstar Heroes Review - Review". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  20. ↑ "Gunstar Heroes - Sega Megadrive - Mean Machines review". Meanmachinesmag.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  21. 1 2 MegaTech rating, EMAP, issue 21.
  22. ↑ Workman, Robert (2015-08-24). "3D Gunstar Heroes Review | RETRO". Readretro.com. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  23. ↑
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ GameFan, volume 1, issue 3 (January 1993), pages 70-71
  26. 1 2 "Electronic Gaming Monthly's Buyer's Guide". 1994.
  27. ↑ "Top Ten Mega Drive Games". Retrogamer.com. 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  28. ↑ "Top Ten Game Gear Games". Retrogamer.com. 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  29. ↑ "EGM Top 100 Best Games of All Time". Electronic Gaming Monthly. November 1997. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
  30. ↑ Top 100 Games of All Time, Electronic Gaming Monthly, 2001
  31. ↑ "The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time". Electronic Gaming Monthly. February 6, 2006. Archived from the original on 2013-08-01. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  32. ↑ "Spring 2004: Best. Game. Ever.". GameFAQs. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
  33. ↑ "Fall 2005: 10-Year Anniversary Contest—The 10 Best Games Ever". GameFAQs. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
  34. ↑ "Spring 2009: Best. Game. Ever.". GameFAQs. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  35. ↑ Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition reveals the Top 50 console games of all time, Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, 2009
  36. ↑ "IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time". IGN. 2003. Retrieved 2014-12-17.
  37. ↑ "IGN's Top 100 Games, 2005". IGN. 2005. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  38. ↑ "100 Greatest Retro Games", NowGamer (Imagine Publishing), 2010 (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)
  39. ↑ "Top 100 Retro Games", Retro Gamer, no. 1, January 2004, p. 30

External links

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