E3: Gunster Super Heroes Hands-On

Treasure and Sega join forces for an all-new, frankly earth-shattering GBA title! OH YES!

Treasure, the legendary developers behind a great number of classic hit titles dating back to Dynamite Headdy during the 16-bit era to more recent offerings like Ikaruga, Astro Boy: The Omega Factor and Advance Guardian Heroes have dipped into their vault and dug up one of their true 16-bit classics, giving it a much needed update.

At E3 while practically camped out in Sega's booth, certain Kikizo staff took advantage by blasting our way through Gunstar Super Heroes, the long-awaited sequel to Treasure's critically acclaimed Sega Genesis classic, Gunstar Heroes - which hit Sega's 16-bitter close to 12 years ago, blowing gamers away with frenetic side-scrolling run n' gun shooting action, cool weapons and insane Treasure-styled boss battles.

Attempting to work that Treasure magic once again while 'thankfully' keeping all of the insane action within the 2D realm, the GBA update continues the Gunstar tradition and expands upon it by introducing all-new levels, weapon types as well as challenging and memorable bosses encounters - one of which had us fighting against a giant plant-like monster that littered the screen with falling objects that exploded on impact while we constantly kept on the move avoiding the falling objects while blasting away at the boss and some mutant caterpillar-looking critters crawling about.

The E3 version we played left us with a pretty good impression of how the game is coming along. Obviously the team behind the original Gunstar Heroes has had a hand in the development of this sequel as the game feels really similar to the classic original, which is a wonderful thing no doubt and allows fans of the original to quickly feel right at home as they barrel their way through all six of the game's action-packed levels, successfully blasting their way through the enemy swarms they'll encounter in a variety of gameplay settings.

At the start of the game we were presented with the option of selecting between characters Red and Blue, and while both have the same mission to complete, they'll both travel down different paths in order to reach their final goal. In a way this type of setup makes for a lengthier game and double the level count when playing as both characters.

The control of Gunstar Super Heroes is incredibly easy to pick-up even if you've never played the original. The red and blue characters can shoot, jump, jump kick, perform a sliding attack, melee attack, uppercut, pick up items, fire super charged versions of their weapons as well as lock their weapons in any direction while running and shooting which is quite helpful when dealing with airborne enemies.

With the game's reworked weapons system the characters sport three different styles of weapons in their arsenal - rapid fire, automatic, and explosive styled weaponry - each of which is useful when dealing with certain types of enemies.

Visually, the graphics of the GBA update are certainly shaping up quite nicely with brightly colored graphics that consist of vibrant, detailed backgrounds, cool scaling and rotation effects used in some of the levels, cool characters designs and plenty of onscreen action to keep the fingers of players twitchin' all throughout the game.

Players can look forward to lots of running n' gunning, platforming-styled action through a variety of creative levels designs littered with swarms of enemies and crazy bosses. Hardcore Gunstar & Sega fans can also look forward to a number of added bonuses like a retooled version of the original Gunstar Heroes opening level, mini-bosses from Altered Beast and Golden Axe, After Burner music playing during the game's aerial sequence, as well as other homages paid to past Sega hits.

At a time when most developers have pretty much discounted 2D gaming, it's always great to see top tier talent like Treasure continue to embrace the classic gameplay and visual style that originally brought them to the dance. Keep it Kikizo as Gunstar Super Heroes prepares to hit the portable scene later this year.

Joseph Jackson
Executive Editor, Kikizo Games