Gunstar Heroes
| Gunstar Heroes | |
| Gunstar Heroes box cover for the Sega Mega Drive | |
| Developer: | Treasure Co. Ltd |
| Publisher: | Sega |
| Release date: | September 10, 1993 |
| Genre: | Action game |
| Game modes: | Single player, multiplayer |
| ESRB rating: | N/A |
| Platform: | Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear |
| Media: | 16-bit Cartridge |
Gunstar Heroes is an side-scrolling video game released in 1993 by Treasure Co. Ltd for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the Sega Game Gear. In many aspects, Gunstar Heroes is considred innovative. It combined a linear, side-scrolling shooter with plot elements, a combo-based weapon system, a dice game, recurring bosses, and combat strategy. It remains one of the most popular games of the 16-bit console, and is often found being traded for relatively high prices (around 10 times the price of a common cartridge). In the console's later years it was re-packed in Sega's Classic Pack along other greats such as Alex Kidd, Altered Beast and Flicky.
Although innovative for its time, Gunstar Heroes is often compared to other popular action platformers such as Konami's Contra. Coincidentally, Treasure Co. Ltd was formed from ex-Konami employees.
Story
The story takes place on the planet Gunstar 9, which was once threatened by a robot called "Golden Silver." However, the robot was deactivated by a hero named White Gunstar. Since then, an evil dictator named Colonel Red has kidnapped a relative of White Gunstar in hopes of brainwashing him and forcing him to help revive the robot Golden Silver. Because White Gunstar has aged since his heroic days, he bestows the challenge of defeating Colonel Red and his army of robots to Red Gunstar and Blue Gunstar, the game's heroes.
Weapons
The weapon system gives each player space for two weapon shots. The player can then combine any two simple shots to form a combo shot. This isn't to say that the player is forced to use the combination; with the press of a button the player can choose to rotate from the combo to only one weapon, then to the other, and finally back to the combo. Generally, though, the combo shots are more powerful.
Although players choose their main shot at the beginning of the game, the weapons are dropped very frequently from bird-like robots that fly by during the heat of battle. If the player only has one slot selected, then they can choose to swap that weapon out for the new one, creating entirely different combos.
In addition to all the weapons, it is also possible to grab enemies that get too close, and toss them into other enemies, damaging both enemies involved. This can be risky since several enemies are capable of melee attacks, but is an effective last resort. Less risky but also useful is the sliding tackle movement, which allows the player to dodge and attack a nearby opponent at the same time.
Basic Shots:
- Force Shot - A ball of energy. Medium-powered.
- Lightning Shot - A rapid laser blast of blue lightning.
- Chaser Shot - A rapid fire, target-seeking gun that shoots stars; it is the weakest single shot.
- Flame Shot - A fairly short-ranged but powerful and continuous flamethrower.
Combo Shots:
- Force+Force - A strong, rapid-fire gun that can shoot in all directions.
- Force+Lightning - Slightly less strong than Force+Force, this is a rapid-fire laser gun that travels through its targets.
- Force+Chaser - Stronger than the single Force shot, this gun has some limited Chaser power.
- Force+Flame - A rapid-fire Force gun that fires explosive shots.
- Lightning+Lightning - Continuos Lightning Shot. Heavy damage.
- Lightning+Chaser - A Lightning gun with excellent Chaser capability. The only drawback is it sometimes remains homed in on a target.
- Lightning+Flame - A very strong but short-range lightning sword.
- Chaser+Chaser - A moderately-strong gun that homes in on multiple-targets.
- Chaser+Flame - A Flame gun that fires shots you can control toward a target. Difficult to use but effective if mastered.
- Flame+Flame - A very strong Flame gun with twice the range of the single Flame shot.