Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #377: Gunstar Heroes

Gunstar Heroes

Sega Genesis

Nostalgia Factor

Gunstar Heroes is a game I have been wanting to play for a LONG time. Just like the last Genesis game I played (Rocket Knight Adventures), this is a game that people generally speak about with reverence and hold in high regard. Why did I never play it as a kid? I don't know. The rental stores must not have had it!

The absolute best thing about my Mop Up Duty review tour is the fact that I am now finally forcing myself to go back and check out all these highly revered games I missed out on as a kid. As much as I've told myself I want to check out Gunstar Heroes over the last few years, the time has finally come. Would all the hype around the game be well-deserved? That's what I am here to find out.

Story:

This is one of those games where it feels you have to own the manual to truly understand what's happening. Not much is explained in the game's introduction. It's just your characters running and talking about how they have to stop "him."

Something happens with four different colored gems. Everyone falls under "his" control, except for you. You run off to stop him. At least that's what I got out of it. At the end of the game, you find out that one of your brothers has betrayed you, and you fight him. Normally in a game this would be a giant twist or a "whoah!" moment, but the way this game's story is handled so poorly, you don't even care. And I would argue that you really shouldn't. No one plays these types of games for their stories - at least back in 1993 they didn't.

Gameplay:

I have to give this game credit for the flexibility it offers its players. When you start playing, you are given the option of whether or not you want your character to stay still when you fire your weapon or keep moving. Each style of play carries with it its own set of advantages and disadvantages. If you choose to stop moving, you can hit your enemies with a greater degree of accuracy - which comes in great handy during boss fights when you have to shoot upwards at enemies from a diagonal angle. The downside? You can't run and shoot at the same time, which means you are completely stopped every time you fire your gun. The upside to selecting the ability to move and shoot at the same time is obvious, but the downside is that when you are fighting bosses you can't just plant yourself in one position and fire away. You have to always keep moving, which makes it really hard to dole out massive amounts of damage. It also puts yourself in harm's way because if you accidentally touch the boss, you take damage.

When the game begins you are also given the choice of what kind of weapon you'd like. There are four different weapon types - standard shooter, fire, laser, and homing shots. As you play the game you can pick up other types of weapons to keep in your storage, and you can switch back and forth between weapon types if you would like. There's also a third option - to combine your weapons. This is where the game give the player the ability to be creative. Test what weapon combination works best for you. The fire and the homing shot? Double fire? The laser and the homing shot? You have to experiment and find out yourself.

There are seven stages in this game. The first four you can play in any order you would like. These initial stages consist of your player collecting all the colored gems from the game's introduction (I always referred to them in my mind as Chaos Emeralds). The remaining three stages consist of your character taking the fight to the bad guy in order to take him out.

The name of this game is chaos. You're always moving. There's always enemies coming at you from all angles. There's always something blowing up or some kind of projectile coming off the screen. Most stages consist of you moving your character to the right until you get to the end of the level, where you'll fight a boss character. While this is an overall challenging game, the actual stages themselves aren't too horribly difficult. It's the boss battles where you need to bring your A game. Memorizing patterns, dodging attacks, staying alive long enough to whittle their health away completely. You do NOT want to die in this game, because you're going to find yourself having to replay through segments you've already completed. There's nothing worse than almost defeating a boss, but then dying and having to replay the last fifteen minutes over again. Nothing. Especially when it happens multiple times.

Graphics:

This is clearly one of the best looking Genesis games out there. Just look at the screenshots I've posted. Gorgeous sprite animation. Bright colors. Awesome background art. The game has a lot going on onscreen at all times, and never once did I experience any slowdown. Visually, this game is top-notch.

Sound:

I can't say I am too impressed by this game's music or its sound effects. There's nothing memorable to be found here. Maybe it is because there is always stuff happening onscreen as far as explosions and intense action, but I didn't even notice the music half the time. When I did notice the music, I tended to like it. Has kind of a Sonic feel to it. But could I hum you the tune from even one of these tracks? Nope. Overall, pretty forgettable in the long run.

Overall:

I think my expectations were too high coming into this game. I've read all the great reviews and I've heard all the hype about how this is supposed to be one of the greatest Genesis games of all time. But I wasn't feeling it.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad game. But I don't think it is particularly great either. I had an okay time playing through this. I liked it a lot at the beginning, but the more I played I found my enthusiasm ebbing more and more, to the point where the game began to feel like a chore. In my humble opinion, this certainly does not belong in the pantheon of all-time Genesis greats. Somewhere in the middle sounds about right to me.

So that's what I'm going to score this one. In the middle. I wouldn't say this game is average. It deserves a little more credit than that. But given how indifferent I became towards this game in the middle of it, I can't in good conscience score it in the B range. If you want a truly great side-scrolling Genesis shooter, you should play Contra Hard Corps instead.

THE GRADE:

C+

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984: