The object of interest in this game is the mysterious Valkiry Stone. Two treasure hunters, Axel and Ruka, set out to find the stone, but the evil gang known as the Pumpkin Heads wants to find the stone first. As either Axel or Ruka, blast your way through six side-scrolling levels against hordes of enemies, facing off against several bosses in each level. You can select from four different weapon effects (normal, bouncing, homing and flamethrower), use smartbombs and a grappling hook.
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A Gunstar Heroes inspired game by the creators of Wild Arms? I was excited about trying this game out, but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind.
As an early full 2D game for the PS1, it understandably wasn’t of high import, as this was only released outside of Japan in the PAL region. We didn’t get it in the States, probably due to Sony Computer Entertainment America being anal about 2D games. We almost didn’t even get any Mega Man games on the PS1 because of this. The only reason Mega Man 8 was able to be released in America is because Sony didn’t want the Saturn to have an exclusive title, as if they even needed to compete with it at all. So, yeah, something like this coming to America? No chance. Nonetheless, this is still a laughable localization. I was shocked to see that the entire credits was left untranslated. Did they think nobody would beat the game or something? I’m left wondering how it was even allowed to be released like that; I’ve never seen that before. Other than that, there was a difficulty change made to the European version where instead of the Japanese version's infinite continue amount, this game limits it to 9, which does make it much more difficult. It took a lot of grinding, as this game is pretty tough.
You have 4 guns: a normal shot, a wide shot, a homing shot, and a flame shot, which is for high damage output. The cool thing about this game is that you’re able to switch between any of them on the fly, which is fun to swap them in the levels and boss fights to suit what's going on. There’s also a lock button so you can aim in place, and a grappling hook, so you’re able to vault onto platforms above. The cool thing about the grappling hook is that you’re immune for a period of time when using it which is fun to plan out. The bosses are great too; they’re really hard, and it’s fun to learn their patterns. The final boss is a great test for all you’ve learned playing the game. You will be dying a lot though, so beware.
Rapid Reload lets you pick from two characters, and they are Axel Sonics and Ruka Hetfield. Their only gameplay difference is their weapons, which all have the same attributes (normal, homing, etc.) but are all different variations. Ruka, for some reason, is balanced horribly. Her guns barely do any damage, and there are a ton of instances where I’m certain it’s impossible to not take damage due to her not having enough coverage for what’s on the screen. Everything I praised about the gameplay basically gets thrown out the window while playing as Ruka. This is easily the worst part about this game, and it was infuriating when attempting to beat the game as her, but I was able to, and it took a lot of practice. Axel, though, is far stronger, as he does much more damage and has a lock-on homing laser, which makes a lot of the game's levels and bosses an absolute joke.
I don’t really think anything else is super remarkable about the game though. The music is serviceable. I like some songs, but a lot of them are pretty boring. The graphics are also pretty standard. I mean, again, a super early PS1 game, but it’s very bland. The boss sprites do look pretty cool, though, along with the character portraits shown after stage completion.
If you play this game, just play as Axel, and save yourself from raging. If you’re a completionist, I’m sorry for what you’ll have to go through. If you don’t mind playing the game in Japanese, just play Gunners Heaven. You have infinite continues and 60 FPS, so that’s definitely a more desirable version. Or you could just play Gunstar Heroes.
As an early full 2D game for the PS1, it understandably wasn’t of high import, as this was only released outside of Japan in the PAL region. We didn’t get it in the States, probably due to Sony Computer Entertainment America being anal about 2D games. We almost didn’t even get any Mega Man games on the PS1 because of this. The only reason Mega Man 8 was able to be released in America is because Sony didn’t want the Saturn to have an exclusive title, as if they even needed to compete with it at all. So, yeah, something like this coming to America? No chance. Nonetheless, this is still a laughable localization. I was shocked to see that the entire credits was left untranslated. Did they think nobody would beat the game or something? I’m left wondering how it was even allowed to be released like that; I’ve never seen that before. Other than that, there was a difficulty change made to the European version where instead of the Japanese version's infinite continue amount, this game limits it to 9, which does make it much more difficult. It took a lot of grinding, as this game is pretty tough.
You have 4 guns: a normal shot, a wide shot, a homing shot, and a flame shot, which is for high damage output. The cool thing about this game is that you’re able to switch between any of them on the fly, which is fun to swap them in the levels and boss fights to suit what's going on. There’s also a lock button so you can aim in place, and a grappling hook, so you’re able to vault onto platforms above. The cool thing about the grappling hook is that you’re immune for a period of time when using it which is fun to plan out. The bosses are great too; they’re really hard, and it’s fun to learn their patterns. The final boss is a great test for all you’ve learned playing the game. You will be dying a lot though, so beware.
Rapid Reload lets you pick from two characters, and they are Axel Sonics and Ruka Hetfield. Their only gameplay difference is their weapons, which all have the same attributes (normal, homing, etc.) but are all different variations. Ruka, for some reason, is balanced horribly. Her guns barely do any damage, and there are a ton of instances where I’m certain it’s impossible to not take damage due to her not having enough coverage for what’s on the screen. Everything I praised about the gameplay basically gets thrown out the window while playing as Ruka. This is easily the worst part about this game, and it was infuriating when attempting to beat the game as her, but I was able to, and it took a lot of practice. Axel, though, is far stronger, as he does much more damage and has a lock-on homing laser, which makes a lot of the game's levels and bosses an absolute joke.
I don’t really think anything else is super remarkable about the game though. The music is serviceable. I like some songs, but a lot of them are pretty boring. The graphics are also pretty standard. I mean, again, a super early PS1 game, but it’s very bland. The boss sprites do look pretty cool, though, along with the character portraits shown after stage completion.
If you play this game, just play as Axel, and save yourself from raging. If you’re a completionist, I’m sorry for what you’ll have to go through. If you don’t mind playing the game in Japanese, just play Gunners Heaven. You have infinite continues and 60 FPS, so that’s definitely a more desirable version. Or you could just play Gunstar Heroes.
I checked this out because I liked the spritework. It's got a really cute art style and spritework! Everything else is incredibly mid...
Gunstar Heroes at home
Really good, but hard as hell!