Collection essentials #121: Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)

Yesterday I talked about a Treasure game for the first time and noted that it had been their third one released, and that I would get to the first two at a later time. Well, here’s the first one released, Gunstar Heroes, a game that wasn’t quite a household name but is known and revered by retro game enthusiasts as one of the highlights in the Genesis library.

As stated before, Treasure was founded from former Konami employees who wanted more freedom in their game development. And of course Konami was the company that brought us Contra, the incredible series of run ‘n gun games. So it’s fitting that Treasure’s first-released game is a run ‘n gun. And Gunstar Heroes does plenty to set itself apart from Contra so that it’s not merely a clone. The basic concept is pretty much the same, to advance forward and use whatever gun you have to wipe out enemies in your way. But the execution is significantly different.

An immediately obvious and cool difference with Gunstar Heroes is that you can choose from among four different gun types at the start of the game. And not only that, but they can be combined. When you have two weapons picked up, the gun that you get is some kind of combination of the two of them. That’s pretty awesome. The game also gives you the option of whether you want to shoot and run at the same time or stand still when you’re shooting for more precise aim, and such control options are appreciated. The game is also very different because you actually have hit points, meaning you can take several hits before dying, as opposed to something like Contra where each life is normally just one hit. That doesn’t mean Gunstar Heroes is easy, mind you, but some might find this system less frustrating.

And on top of basic mechanics, Gunstar Heroes feels very different from Contra. It has its own distinct style in terms of the graphics and characters, a little more cartoony. And the level design is quite creative too. As I said with yesterday’s game, you never can truly know what you’re going to see next in this game. There’s one particularly unusual portion of the game where you roll a die and in the background you see an icon of your character move forward that number of spaces, and whatever you land on determines what happens next. And of course the action can be enjoyed as a two-player simultaneous co-op experience for even more fun.

This is another game that is available on modern platforms within “Sega Genesis Classics”. It’s a true essential for the Sega Genesis and well worth taking for a spin.