Gunstar Heroes is a classic example of what old-schooling gaming is all about. It's a blast from start to finish.
I never thought I’d be buying a game on the Wii’s virtual console. The prices seemed a bit too high, and many of the games coming out near launch were either A) Nothing I was interested in, or B) Had already played into oblivion. Then one day Gunstar Heroes comes around. I was a Nintendo kid growing up in the days of the old Sega/Nintendo rivalry, so naturally it was the SNES that sat in front of my TV. I did have a few friends who had a Sega Genesis and got to play some classics such as Sonic, Golden Axe I and II, Toe Jam and Earl, and Ecco the Dolphin. Other than these titles my experience with Genesis games has been non-existent. I had heard about it over the years. Mostly remarks on its superiority in relation to Contra, but never had the opportunity to play it. I decided this would be a great opportunity for me to try out a classic, and play around with Wii’s virtual console. I have a few comments about the virtual console itself, but will save it for one of my upcoming user videos, so look ahead for that.
The game starts off with a lot of options including how you fire your weapon in the game and even the weapon itself you start off with. I thought this was a great idea as it gives you a sense of control even before the action starts. The game consists of four weapon types, including: lightning, fire, chaser(homing), and rapid(many generic orbs). Throughout the game you can always hold two weapon types which give your varying combinations to work with. Figuring out these various combos is a blast, as you upgrade to something new and exciting only to watch the swarm of enemies around you crumble. My personal favorites are using the chaser and lighting together. This combo gives you a powerful lighting attack that automatically hurts the enemies. It allows you to dodge obstacles and enemies in the environment and let the homing attack do the work for you. This combo is especially useful during boss battles. After making those selections, it is now onto the stage selection screen. There are four stages to choose from and naturally I start of with the first. One would think the stages would be lined up in order of difficulty, but I found the order from easiest to most difficult to be 1,3,2,4. The 4 boss battles at the end of stage 2 gave me a run for my money, but once you figure out the correct patterns its smooth sailing. That being said I’d say that idea goes for the whole game. It’s difficult the first few times, and you may find yourself exclaiming, “WTF?! How am I supposed to beat that?”, but after a few more tries you’ll get it down. There is more action after the first four stages, but I don’t want to give too much away. I really enjoyed the graphical styling of Gunstar Heroes. Everything was bright an exuberant and quirky enough to keep me entertained. I’m also a sucker for the old SNES/Genesis graphics. There is just something about that old 2D style that sticks with me. Even today I would still rather enjoy (graphically) a good SNES/Genesis game over the early 3D PSone and N64 games.
The sound was adequate; nothing that blew me away, but just enough to mesh with the flow of the game. Usually if a title has great music I’ll be humming or thinking about after playing it for awhile. I can’t actually think how the music in Gunstar Heroes even goes right now. That fact could also be attributed to the gameplay, as it had me at the edge of my seat through the entire session. It was great to have that old school feeling again of just dying and trying and trying again. Many of today’s games just lack that persevering quality that never let you put a game down. The game also provides a numerous amount of mini-boss and boss battles; many coming one after another in an overwhelming amount that can only be described as visceral joy. I played the game for about 3 hours straight and ended up beating it. There was also a little break in there for downloading the Wii’s new trial browser. Also for those interested I played the game using the Wii remote on it’s side. It worked out just fine, but did get uncomfortable after about 2 hours. The D-pad just isn’t large enough to accommodate long game sessions with out irritating your thumb. Overall I had a ton of fun with Gunstar Heroes. It was immensely satisfying to run and gun my way through each level working on my different weapon combinations, trying to find out which was most effective for each individual level or area. I haven’t such instant enjoyment out of a game since importing Quedan for the DS.
The game also has great replay value with its addition of a co-op mode and overall fun factor. Gunstar Heroes is a game that I’d recommend every gamer out there to play through at least once. You won’t regret it!