Gunstar Super Heroes

Several years ago it became necessary for my circle of friends to choose different brands of consoles. Partially out of personal preference, but mostly because we each could only afford one console each. This worked out well, since we could play the games on the proverbial ‘other side of the fence’ on the cheap. Since I was destined to become a Nintendo person, I took every opportunity to exchange time on the Super NES for time on the Genesis. One of the games that I distinctly remembered from these exchanges was a fantastic game called Gunstar Heroes. Of course, now that I’m older and actually have a Genesis and the means to buy back pieces of my childhood, I set out to locate the game, and quickly discovered that I’m apparently not the only one that thought this game was totally rad, as the asking price is borderline pretendous.

Imagine my surprise when the team responsible for the game (and, curiously, the fantastic Super Castlevania IV) got back together and produced a sequel for the Game Boy Advance. I was fairly excited about that, but then promptly forgot about it until about three weeks ago. I was trolling around my local Toys ‘R’ Us for bargains and happened on a stack of them for $9.98.

While not completely identical to the original game, it’s a suitable surrogate. It is a sequel, after all. The controls are a little wonky, but once you get used to them aren’t too bad. I especially had trouble standing in one place and shooting, for some reason.

The story and graphics are very similar to the original game: You, as either special agent Red or Blue have to save the planet from various villainous characters named after the colors of the rainbow and their hordes of disposable minions. It’s decently fun and challenging. The only thing missing is the two player option. The original was a good one-player experience and even better with two-players. But it’s good for a few hours, at least.

Leave a Reply