Gunstar Heroes

Made by Treasure in 1993, which was formed by a group of former employees of Konami. The game has anime look like graphics, and a frenetic action style “shoot everything you see ahead,” Contra-style but much better.

Let’s proceed to the story. You are a Gunstar Hero and your duty is to prevent an evil emperor who invaded the planet Gunstar 9, from releasing a demonic being that is trapped inside 4 crystals, which you will have to collect over the game.

You can perform this arduous task playing alone or with a partner. Good is also playing the game on difficulty level “Hard or Expert,” for those you get to see 100% of the game. In other levels, the head of the 2nd phase for example, does not appear altogether, as in “Hard or Expert,” you will face him totally. Besides the bosses of this game are incredibly varied and included among a list of the most creative ever created and when you find them you will also see a counter showing his energy and also before they appear, you will see the name of their attacks. Oh and believe in the “Expert” mode even the veterans will have a hard work.

The game has a total of seven phases, which may seem few to some people, but believe me, they are very well worked. They are huge and have hundreds of innovations as long as you continue playing the game. You never see a stage in this game with everything equal to another one. Enemies, scenarios, explosions .. will always have several things that will make them very different from each other.

I recommend that you follow the order of the first 4 stages, because you can choose which you want to play in a random order. It turns out that the order 1 (easiest) -2-3-4 (more difficult) will make your life easier, even more so after each level you earn 20 points.

There is a stage in the game where you play a spaceship in a very good Shoot’em Up style, further increasing the variety of things in the game.

The look of the game is spectacular. You get super explosions defined, well-crafted backgrounds, well performed animations and you can also count with 3D elements in this game.

This game has undoubtedly one of the best graphics generated for Sega Genesis. The developers of Treasure need to be congratulated, as they were able to extract the best of the Sega Genesis with these superb graphics.

The sounds of the game are incredible, from the music to the sounds of voices. Turn up the volume to maximum and let the game roll. The explosions are so numerous and so convincing that someone passing around will think that there is a war in your bedroom.

Gunstar Heroes did not sin in the gameplay. You can choose one at the beginning of four types of weapons (Strength, Fire, Remotely Controled and Laser) and throughout the game you can get them and combine them to form new and more powerful weapons. Laser+Remote Control will leave you with a laser guided very useful, as well as with Fire + Fire you will have a devastating attack power. You may also choose at the beginning of the game to use  fixed or free shot.

And to top it off, you still have to combat, leaving you with the ability to throw your enemies as well as the bombs they throw at you. There is a sub-boss in stage 4 and if you face him you will have to finish him without weapons, only the punches and body shots. This undoubtedly made the game have that “A +” that the others of the genre at the time never had.

Gunstar Heroes combines the very best in all Contra games and with its own elements, makes it in my opinion the best game in the style that exists. Very nice phases, incredibly creative bosses, perfect gameplay, graphics and sounds from another world, four levels of difficulty for the game to be easy even for beginners or difficult for veterans on duty, Gunstar Heroes become the success, it was, and still is.

Do not waste time, reconnect your Sega Genesis and run to the nearest video store and grab this game if you have never played, you will not regret it.