Together Retro: Gunstar Heroes

[alienjesus]

So i did a few runs for fun, including one in co-op where me and my friend both chose each others starting weapon to make us try out different combos. I started with force (the machine gun), which is easily my least favourite of the two. During the course of they game I tried loads of different combos, so I guess I'll rate them here, based on my own experience with them. I've used them all before, but not as much as this.

Force + Force - really dull, and I dont like weapons where you cant aim between the 8 compass points like you can with some by swinging them around (think fire). Decent power though, and I like the slight spread.

Force + Lightning - A laser machine gun. Shoots between the compass points if you wiggle it, which is awesome, and I like the way it goes through walls. A bit weak for bosses though. Probably my favourite force combo.

Force + Chaser - Powerful and easy to use, but it could be annoying getting it to target enemies in front of you due to it's strange homing mechanic where it turns around 90s by default. Better than double force.

Force + Fire - a weird burst shot thats slow and underpowered. My vote for worst gun combo in the game. The burst range is quite small, and doesnt make up for its crap speed.

I also used a couple of chaser combos:

Chaser + Chaser - Easy mode. Just keep running and never let go of fire. I like it way more than chaser + lightning, which most prefer, because it's easier to aim at specific enemies.

Chaser + Lightning: I dont like it. We were on hard mode, and it didnt do enough damage, or kill enemies fast enough to stop me taking unnecessary hits.

Chaser + Fire: Awesome. This is the gun I used for the final level up until golden silver. It's odd to use with free shot (like I do) as it makes you nove around whilst aiming, but it does silly damage and destroys enemy bullets. My second favourite weapon in the game after fire+fire.

[noiseredux]

I can't believe the month is almost over. It's been a busy one for me, and I've spent most of my gaming time playing just a handful of shmups and ignoring Together Retro and the Summer Gaming Challenge.

GUNSTAR Heroes I do think is a fairly fun game. But I gotta say, I'm just not so super into run-n-guns these days. I don't know what it is. I admit, Gunstar looks great. And I had a lot of fun playing co-op with ninjaspandex one night. We made it all the way to the final boss and then kept getting our asses handed to us. And since that night I've had a tough time being motivated to run through the game again. The thought of firing it up and going through -- whatever it was, an hour or so? -- just to retry that final boss battle again seems so off-putting to me. Sigh.

[ExedExes]

I can't believe the month is almost over. It's been a busy one for me, and I've spent most of my gaming time playing just a handful of shmups and ignoring Together Retro and the Summer Gaming Challenge.

Don't feel too bad. After beating GH on *normal*, and that was a monumental effort in itself, I just did not want to go back. I've not been giving any of the 3 TR games this month much love, but I have been representing Treasure well with Ikaruga which is still a lesson in ass-kicking I guess with it being the summer TR just gets slow all around?

*rasser frassin Gamecube sucking me in*

[pierrot]

So, I sat down with Gunstar Heroes for a good part of my time so far today. I'd played the first level a couple times before, and I have Gunstar Super Heroes on the GBA, which I was stuck on Green for the longest time in, and never managed to actually beat the final boss rush after I finally beat Green. (Which at this point was years and years ago. I might actually have an easier time of it now.)

I was getting beat down on pretty hard when I first started playing, and Black's game board almost forced me to stop completely. When I first got to his boss battle, I had landed on the 'Go Back' panel, and was pretty low on health for the actual boss fight. I had no idea he was going to throw an exploding gem at me after the game gave me an f'ing Stage Clear screen. So as I'm completely spacing out I'm treated to a death that, at the time, seemed like it came from absolutely nowhere. I've never been so close to chucking a controller through a window before. Ended up gritting my teeth and playing up to the boss rush 'til I couldn't stand the sight of Orange anymore, before taking a break.

Came back to the game a few minutes after, and no-death ran normal mode. Final score: 5,283,790. Lasted about 2:24s on Timeron before I got bored. (First time, I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to shoot it.)
You might be asking, 'What happened during that break of yours?' 'Surely you injected yourself with the molten iron of Thor's mighty hammer.'
Well, no--but close.
After getting comfortable with the Fire weapon in the first level, I realized in the second that Chaser + Lighting rapes the faces off of just about everything in the game, Raiders of the Lost Arc style.
Just hold fire and run--or jump, I guess. If you should like doing such a thing.

Anyway, I do really enjoy the Gunstar games, but there's something about them that just doesn't quite overly excite me. Maybe I'm just in the same boat as noiseredux. I feel sort of the same way about Gunstar Heroes as I do about Guardian Heroes (which I like considerably more now than when I first started playing it) in that they're good games, but I'm not really as entertained by them as I'd like to be. Also they seem similar in that I think they look great in terms of presentation even today, but the controls don't feel like they've aged quite as well. (Wall)jumping, hanging from platforms, mine cart rail jumping: all very cool mechanics, but just ever so slightly not tight enough for me to REALLY enjoy this game.