Together Retro: Gunstar Heroes

[Dylan]

Fire/Chaser and Fire/Lightning are actually the two most powerful weapons, but the former has control problems in free shot, and the latter has terrible range. I still prefer them to fire + force, which is one of my least favourite in the game.

What I should have said was that I don't like the way they handle rather than that they're literally weak.

[noiseredux]

any advice on beating the M. bison looking guy? me and noise got to him but i cant figure out how to dodge his charge attack and if we get past that stage were usually very low health or just one of us left and he does this dahlsim extend leg attack that i cant seem to avoid.

Unfortunately there's no fancy tips here. You just have to jump his charge and move away from his kick. I seem to remember that the slide attack does a lot of damage to him whilst he's on the ground, and you can do that with either down + jump, or a semi circle back to forward and attack for a better slide attack (aka Dhalsim's Yoga Flame).

ugh yeah... that pissed me off haha. We had a great run up to him but having to re-do the level each time was annoying since I was so ready for bed haha. @ninja: it didn't occur to me then, but when he charges instead of just jumping we probably wanted to do the jump-->dive thing y'know? Anyway, playing through with someone else definitely made me appreciate this game way more.

[ExedExes]

Played it on Normal yesterday, and Three Force becomes Five Force. That red-colored one was giving me quite a time. I was using Lightning + Force (Lightening Force?) on Five Force and I wish I had picked up Lightning + Seeker instead. Would have made it that much easier.

[alienjesus]

I do believe the red one you mentioned is Crab Force, which is easily the hardest of the 7 forms. I often change my weapon to the fire + chaser or fire + laser just for him, as it destroys the wall projectiles he shoots.

Anyhow, I'm about to go play a run myself, starting with a weapon other than fire and trying to generally avoid using fire at all. XD

[NebachadnezzaR]

Has anyone else played the GBA sequel? I tried it out after beating the original game, and while it's not a bad game overall, It's just too similar to the first one. I mean, the characters are the same, only with a different design, most of the stages are just rehashes of those in GH (there's a jungle themed level with a pyramid at the end, a mine level where you ride on a machine, a boardgame level, etc). Oner thing is to hint back at the original game, another thing entirely is to almost remake it and pass it off as a sequel.

The weapon system is also gone, here you always carry 3 guns and can choose at will. The graphics show some great sprites and effects that I think really push the system (the bosses are awesome) but doesn't have vibrant colors like the original, it all seems washed down, which is a shame since otherwise the game is pretty awesome.

In the end, if you don't mind the feeling of the game being almost a remix of the original, there's plenty of fun to be had, but for me that kind of ruined the experience.

Anyone else has an opinion about this game?

[ExedExes]

I do believe the red one you mentioned is Crab Force, which is easily the hardest of the 7 forms. I often change my weapon to the fire + chaser or fire + laser just for him, as it destroys the wall projectiles he shoots.

That's it. The forms I got were the first one (Soldier?) then the vertical switch to Urchin, then back to horizontal with Crab, then the Gun, then the Falcon. After the Crab, wasn't so bad.

Has anyone else played the GBA sequel? I tried it out after beating the original game, and while it's not a bad game overall, It's just too similar to the first one. I mean, the characters are the same, only with a different design, most of the stages are just rehashes of those in GH (there's a jungle themed level with a pyramid at the end, a mine level where you ride on a machine, a boardgame level, etc). Oner thing is to hint back at the original game, another thing entirely is to almost remake it and pass it off as a sequel.

The weapon system is also gone, here you always carry 3 guns and can choose at will. The graphics show some great sprites and effects that I think really push the system (the bosses are awesome) but doesn't have vibrant colors like the original, it all seems washed down, which is a shame since otherwise the game is pretty awesome.

In the end, if you don't mind the feeling of the game being almost a remix of the original, there's plenty of fun to be had, but for me that kind of ruined the experience.

Anyone else has an opinion about this game?

I was interested when I first started collecting for the GBA, but as you said, all those reasons were a reason I turned away. It's like an interesting conversation we had here about GBA ports vs. remakes, those games with "Advance" in the title, what did they really do? Did they straight-port it with slight changes like the Super Mario Advance series, or did they just take familiar characters and settings and make a totally new game out of it (Metal Slug Advance)? Looks like they tried a little bit of both with Gunstar Super Heroes.

Are the guns/weapons the same in that game, and can you still combine 2 of them?

I also see they did the same sort of format with Guardian Heroes on the GBA, BTW.

[NebachadnezzaR]

Are the guns/weapons the same in that game, and can you still combine 2 of them?

As I said there's 3 of them. One is similar to force; another is better at close-range, a bit like fire, but I'm not sure if there's any fire combo similar to it in GH; and the last one is kind of the homing/laser combo. And no, you can't combine them, although each one has a special meter that when filled let's you use some sort of cannon with extra firepower.

[Dylan]

Anyone else has an opinion about this game?

You covered it pretty well on the rehash front. What I really can't understand is dumbing down the weapon system, that was one of the most enjoyable parts in my experience. I also don't like it when games trade their original art style and get remade in an anime one, that gives the game a generic feel in my opinion (for example I had the same problem with Dawn of Sorrow/Portrait of Ruin). I guess my biggest complaint about this game is how unnecessary it feels, because really it's borderline a dumbed down port.

[ExedExes]

Anyone else has an opinion about this game?

You covered it pretty well on the rehash front. What I really can't understand is dumbing down the weapon system, that was one of the most enjoyable parts in my experience. I also don't like it when games trade their original art style and get remade in an anime one, that gives the game a generic feel in my opinion (for example I had the same problem with Dawn of Sorrow/Portrait of Ruin). I guess my biggest complaint about this game is how unnecessary it feels, because really it's borderline a dumbed down port.

I watched a few videos of it, and it looked like they tried to make it modern and GBA-ready, but there's just a lot that seems off about it.

[ExedExes]

Completed it on Normal difficulty. I always tend to forget that there was a LOT more than just those 4 stages, a classic boss-rush scenario with a shmup stage thrown in to reflect their Konami heritage. Lightning/Seeker saves the day once more. I might try it later on, on a harder difficulty, but even at Normal I was hoping for a bit of a break