Gunbird 2
| Gunbird 2 | |
|---|---|
 North American package for the Dreamcast version |
|
| Developer(s) | Psikyo |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Masato Natsumoto (characters) |
| Series | Gunbird |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) | Arcade
|
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2 player co-op |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Display | Raster, 224 x 320 pixels (vertical), 5120 colors |
Gunbird 2 is a 2D scrolling shooter developed by Psikyo and released by Capcom in 1998 as a sequel to the original Gunbird (1994).
Contents |
[edit] Story
Seven warriors are challenged to head on a quest to find three powerful elements of Sun, Moon and Stars. Whoever brings the elements to the Potion God will be rewarded the legendary Almighty Potion and all its magical powers.[1]
Through gameplay cutscenes (and endings) it appears that the zany, uproarious (and at times rather adult) humor has considerably increased since the original Gunbird. The game has numerous similarities to the Parodius series, including the final boss in the game, a cartoon elephant playing a trumpet.
- Player characters
- Great magician Marion (マリオン): The 9-year-old (mentally 17) English witch from Gunbird returns, with Pom-Pom returning as well.
- Flying excellence Tavia (タビア): A cute, bespectacled, 9-year-old German girl with a jetpack on her back. She is the niece of Ash (who cameos in some of her co-op endings) from the original Gunbird. Emotional and cries easily. When paired with Alucard, she falls in love with him.
- Lonely vampire Alucard (アルカード): The 300-year-old son of Dracula (hence the backward spelling) from Romania. Also a vampire, and capable of great inhuman powers. Although he is good in comparison to his father, he still craves human blood.
- Brown fat body Hei-Cobb (ヘイコブ): A short, fat, turban-sporting man of Arabic descent. He rides a flying carpet. During his cutscenes he is sometimes proud, and sometimes ashamed, of his figure.
- Military robot Valpiro (バルピロ): The same robot as Valnus in the original Gunbird, from Russia. He may have sinister plans for the potion if he obtains it, depending on which ending you receive.
- Aine: A one-eyed Japanese samurai from Sengoku Ace series. Whereas it is not clear in the Sengoku Ace game that he is unclosetedly homosexual (like Tetsu in Gunbird), such subtlety is thrown out the window in Gunbird 2, especially during the ending scene with Aine and another cooperative player, in which he takes his partner to bed with him (in his co-op ending with Marion, he does this to a Pom-Pom turned human, while in the ending with Tavia, he does so to Ash). In arcade machine, Aine is selectable if arcade board settings allow Aine to be selected.
- Morrigan: A Dark World succubus from the Darkstalkers series. On the Dreamcast version, pressing up or down on the random character select allows the player to choose between Aine and Morrigan.
- Boss characters
- The Queen Pirates (空賊, "Sky Pirate"): The enemy in Gunbird 2, a busty pirate woman Shark and her sidekicks, Blade and Gimmick, repeatedly ambushing the champions in their attempts to steal the elements for themselves. They are met and fought at the end of each stage, piloting various giant mecha robots. Their design is based on the Dorombo Gang (villains pf the Time Bokan/Yatterman series).
- The Elephant God: The end boss and an obvious parody of Sato-chan, the mascot of a Japanese company Sato Pharmaceuticals.[2] This is appropriate, given that the protagonists in the game are all searching for a cure to their individual weakness, and Sato-chan is a pop culture icon in Japan.
[edit] Gameplay
There are seven stages in each game loop (two loops total). The first three stages are randomly chosen from possible four. At the second loop, enemies fire denser bullet patterns moving at faster speeds. Stage 2-1 takes place at the only stage not available in 1st loop, instead of the 1-1 counterpart. After completing the first loop with only one player, player can choose one of two choices for a wish with magic potion, with unique ending for each choice. If 1st loop is completed with two players, a combination-specific ending is played.
This is the first Psikyo shooter to feature medal-chaining: picking up 2000 point medals (when they flash) repeatedly results in a slight point increase and a coin chain, recorded separately from the score. This was later featured in Strikers 1945 III/Strikers 1999 and Strikers 1945 Plus.
[edit] Multilingual support
The arcade game supports both English and Japanese languages, chosen via arcade board dip switch settings. The language setting is Japanese if dip switches are set to Japanese, English otherwise.
[edit] Dreamcast version
New fighters in the Sega Dreamcast, released in 2000, include Morrigan and Aine (an unlocked character). Other new features include Internet ranking, gallery, and voices during intermission.
[edit] PlayStation 2 version
PlayStation 2 version of the game was based on arcade version.
[edit] PlayStation Portable version
A enhanced remake, titled Gunbird 2 Remix was announced by PM Studios for PlayStation Portable (via PlayStation Network) in 2009.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Gunbird 2 Dreamcast manual
- ^ Japanese mascots - Sato-chan - Muza-chan's Gate to Japan
- ^ PM Studios Brings Gunbird 2 To The PSP
[edit] External links
- (Japanese) X-nauts website (archived)
- (Japanese) Capcom website
- Gunbird 2 at the Killer List of Videogames
- Gunbird 2 at MobyGames
