Gunstar Heroes for Genesis

Image: MobyGames

Gunstar Heroes

What a Treasure

Genre: action - gun

Publisher: Sega

Year: 1993

System: Genesis

Gameplay Score: 4

Gameplay Notes:

Hard to tell if enemies are taking damage. Movement is slower than I would like. Jump and then again makes you dive but it's an awkward move. Rapid shooting is nice and you can choose to stay in position or move and fire simultaneously. Also all buttons can be remapped. Can grab on ledges and swing up. Four weapons but they all have a weird path do it's hard to swim but stuff comes from all over so you just need to swing around anyway, but it makes it feel very scatter shot and random. The Easy difficulty is a welcome addition.

Level Design Score: 5

Level Design Notes:

The good far outweighs the bad. Lots of autoscrollers. Some vertical and others horizontal. Mostly it's just filler between boss fights which are the main element, as per usual in Treasure titles. I wish there was a bit more to do. It's a bit too much of a series of cinematic set pieces that you shoot at bad guys while viewing. Like the rocket launch in level 3. It happens with or without you and you basically just stand there shooting. Only 6 levels plus the roulette mini games. Continues the grand tradition of ending an awesome sidescroller with a shmup level.

Theme Score: 5

Theme Notes:

Bonkers in a good way. Attractive anime style character designs. Presentation is top notch with level select screens, recurring enemies who control the boss weapons you destroy, and sill animations of grunt enemies falling and running away in fear. Top notch world building within a video game.

Art Style Score: 5

Art Style Notes:

Incredible. Easily the best looking Genesis game. Lovely pixel art. Fun and detailed animations make it hard to even look at everything. Prodigious use of parallax scrolling to create a sense of speed and depth. Precious little slowdown despite tons going on. Looks a lot like Metal Slug.

Audio Score: 5

Audio Notes:

Exciting music Excellent and satisfying sounds. The explosions are frequent and sound great. Wonderful details like how a train sound intensifies as it comes in screen and fades as it leaves.

Overall Score: 90

Review ID: 960