Gunstar Super Heroes
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| Gunstar Super Heroes | |
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| Developer(s) | Treasure Co. Ltd |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Release date(s) |  October 6, 2005 October 25, 2005 November 4, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Run and gun |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10+) CERO: All ages |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Media | 64-megabit cartridge |
Gunstar Super Heroes (Japanese: ガンスタースーパーヒーローズ; Gunstar Future Heroes in Europe) is a Game Boy Advance title created by Treasure Co. Ltd. It is the sequel to the Sega Genesis/Game Gear action title Gunstar Heroes (much as Advance Guardian Heroes was a sequel to the Sega Saturn's Guardian Heroes). Gameplay is similar to that of the original title, but with a fixed set of weapons and the addition of close combat techniques.
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[edit] Story
Taking place after the destruction of the "God of Ruin" (also known as Golden Silver, the final boss) at the end of Gunstar Heroes, the explosion created four moons orbiting the Earth. However, many years later, the creation of a fifth moon reveals a plan to resurrect the malevolent Empire and Golden Silver once again. Many characters from the original return in Super Heroes (such as Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink, Kain, Kotaro, Orange, Black, Gray, and Smash Daisaku). The main characters combat the Empire under the organization called The Third Eye, (abbreviated "3YE") under the names Red (female in the North American version, ambiguous in the Japanese) and Blue in recognition and tribute to the characters from the original game (apparently, since it's not 100% confirmed if they're entirely new), and along with Yellow on the team, they are known as Gunstar Super Heroes. Once again, the Gunstars must travel to the moons, stop the resurrected Empire and recapture the treasure Gems, four Mystical Gems with an unknown power that already drove the story in the original game.
[edit] Characters
- Gunstar Red
A Red-Head with a temper, she is an expert marksman, and relatively new to 3YE as an operative. She's very impulsive, but optimistic and a little naive in nature. She's defintely not afraid to show her emotions. According to the manual, she lost her parents when she was just a child, and joining the organization, has considered Blue as her bigger brother. In the original Japanese version, her gender is largely ambiguous. Stated by the four Jewels, she is the chosen hero for the world.
- Gunstar Blue
Blue is a level-headed Gunstar, who rarely shows much emotion. He tends to be sarcastic about things, although he actually does have a strong sense of responsibility. He likes to alleviate stressful moments by teasing Red, whose personality is quite different from his own. According to the manual, Blue was also an orphan, so he can relate to Red. Blue also has a crush on Red which he hides very well.
- Gunstar Yellow, Yellow Shadow Light
The Commander in charge of the Gunstar Super Heroes, she relays the orders of 3YE to Red and Blue. She tends to worry, and thinks of herself as the mother figure for both Red and Blue, despite all of them being of similar age. She is the daughter of the late Dr. Shadow Light, founder of the Megalith.
- Gunstar Green, Green Shadow Light
Yellow's brother and a member of Gunstar Super Heroes that, for reasons unknown, left and decided to join the Empire. It's said that he holds an ancient relic known as "Seven Force." Truth is Green has infiltrated General Gray's organization, and in Red's hard difficulty, and Blue's normal and hard difficulty, he kills General Gray and takes control of the empire, the organization he is the heir to.
- Pink
Pink is a well known bounty hunter and is the only female member of the whole Empire. She supposedly had to live as a bounty hunter because her colony was taken over by the Earth, and she holds a grudge.
- Kain
He is the tall member of Pink's group who would do anything for Pink.
- Kotaro
He is the small member of Pink's group who would obey Pink without question.
- G.I. Orange
The Captain of a huge warship, Orange loves melee combat, and is known for his incredible fighting skills and strength. He believes in what he wants wholeheartedly. He no longers believes in humanity and thus has sacrificed his name for the name Orange.
- Dr. Black
The Boss of a casino, Black is a devote follower of the Empire. He awaits the Gunstars at his Fortress, which is filled with many treacherous traps. Black used to be Shadow Light's right hand assistant, however the Megalith was powerful and Gray entered in to take it himself and thus Black surrendered and joined him after Shadow Light was killed.
- Smash Daisaku (mistakenly named "Colonel Smash" in the manual)
Not much is known about Smash Daisaku except that he obediently follows General Gray. He is eager to challenge the Gunstars again and prove his worth to the General.
- General Gray
The Head of the Empire. It's only rumored that he plans to resurrect the God of Ruin (Golden Silver) for unknown reasons and that he's hired Pink, Orange, Green and Black to help him. He has had clashes with 3YE in the past and he also killed Dr. Shadow Light... the father of both Green and Yellow. Gray was a man of great economic stature on Earth and funded Shadow Light, however he double crossed him and took the Megalith for himself.
- Golden Silver
Also known as the "Destructor" or "God of Ruin", Golden Silver is a 1000 year old robot that got defeated by the Gunstars. The Empire plans to bring him back, but that's a huge risk as he can totally destroy the planet. The Gems want Golden Silver to awaken to use him for themselves, and the Megalith wants him for the utter destruction of everything.
- Dr. Shadow Light
The Empire's first ever member from 15 years ago and the best friend of Dr. Black. He is the father of Green Shadow Light and Yellow Shadow Light. Later, General Gray betrayed him and his research on the Treasure Gems and Megalith. Fearing for this, he recorded his data on the disks and scattered them, and left his children to hide from Gray.
- Satoa
- The Blue Gem
Satoa is an entity from another Earth. It had always known of human behavior but could not ever hate humanity. It gained the power to bypass dimensional barriers and learned of the entity of Outside Space
- Ruks
- The Yellow Gem
Ruks hails from an Earth of heroes, however it is disappointed in its heroes because they would leave right after their mission finished. It believes Red can save all the Earths.
- Alioto
- The Green Gem
Alioto comes from an Earth where humans manipulated their gentic code to become monsters. It fought for its own survival and learned of outside space.
- Miko
- The Red Gem
Miko was born during a war and was able to save its planet. However it lost consciousness somehow and evolved, learning of outside space. It also believes Red is the chosen hero.
- Megalith
- The "5th" Gem
The Megalith is a sentry from Outside Space to take down the Earth. It uses its powers to manipulate people with misleading information and the ability to transend time and space.
- Outside Space
A full explanation is never released in the game for Outside Space, rather the player must complete all the stories to complete the information on Outside space. It bypasses dimensional barriers and is able take down individual Earths. its intent is to destroy them all.
[edit] Stages
[edit] Stage 0 (Earth's Stage)
The 3YE HQ is under attack by the Empire. Yelow attempts to reach them, but cannot get a returning signal. As you delve into the basre, you meet General gray in the control room. He mentions the Megalith but the Gunstar's must leave to save the captured Yellow. You must then rescue Yellow from a giant Mech Suit which is an Earth robot for Blue's story and an Empire robot for Red. After defeating him, you can access the four moons.
[edit] Stage 1 (Pink's Stage)
The level encompasses a small jungle village. Within, there is a mini level which is just like the Sega game "Flicky". Then you will climb up a large pyramid. After defeating Bravo Man at the top, our heroes will fall into the large pyramid to face off Pink, Kain, and Kotaro.
[edit] Stage 2 (Orange's Stage)
The stage starts with a small helicopter stage done by an eagle's eye view. The stage gets progressively more difficult with the difficulty. After following the giant flying battleship with your ship, our heroes create all sorts of havoc on the deck. As they reach towards the right side of the ship, Orange flies into the air with a jet. The bulky Orange does battle with them on top of the of the jet, and the player can use the top of Yellow's ship as footing.
[edit] Stage 3 (Green's Stage)
Our heroes chase down and destroy the Empire's train, which is being manned by Smash Daisaku in the underground tunnels. After accomplishing this, Green shows up and attacks in his rapidly transforming relic, Seven Force, in one of the most intense battles in the game's early areas. The difficulty of the game determines the length of the fight against Green. On Easy, he battles you in three forms, five on Medium, and in Hard mode, he fights with all seven.
[edit] Stage 4 (Black's Stage)
Black has set up a board game security system. Anyone who can reach the end has to deal with him. After our heroes rush into the system, fight various foes (like Smash Diasaku), and defeat Black in his mech, he attempts to escape from them. When they hit him five times, Black is forced to give up.
[edit] Stage 5 (Smash Daisaku's Stage)
Yellow has been kidnapped by the Empire, and she will only be returned if all the Gems are surrendered! After fighting through the stage and besting Empire's robot, General Gray forces our heroes to comply and return the Gems to the Empire in exchange for Yellow's life. However, General Gray lied and was about to kill two birds with one stone when someone shows up to stop him. If you have the game on Easy or Red's Normal, the other Gunstar takes care of Gray (Blue for Red, Red for Blue). If the game is on Hard or Blue's Normal, Green will surprise General Gray and overthrow him, becoming the new leader (or as he calls it, "rightful heir") of the Empire. Yellow will also join him on Blue's Hard. As the Empire takes off to resurrect Golden Silver in outer space, our heroes board a spaceship and take the battleship head-on. After fighting the spaceships in space, our heroes enter the Empire's base.
[edit] Stage 6 (Final Stage)
Our heroes must take on Pink and her goons, Orange, Black, and Green (in each form of his Seven Force as well). The level is one large set of boss battles with no enemies other than each boss themselves. Pink is outfitted with a butterfly suit with masssive wings which shoots fire, Kain has a laser cannon, and Kotaro throws bombs. Orange does not change, however Black has a new machine which resembles an elevator. The final battle is Green and the player fights on solid ground rather than the tracks back in the mine, and Green has one solid health amount rather than seven separate ones. The villains watch the action from the comfort of the control room ann dissappear as they go to fight the Gunstar's. Upon reaching it, General Gray or Gunstar Green or Gunstar Yellow attempt to revive Golden Silver. They are successful, but the power of the Gems stuns them and leaves them powerless. Our heroes then take on the evil Golden Silver directly by destroying the Gems that revived him. Each gem fires a power shot of its respective weapon. Green (Alioto) fires super chaser, blue (Satoa) fires super lightning, red (Miko) fires super force, and yellow (Ruks) fires super fire.
[edit] Storylines
The Game actually has different storylines depending on the difficulty and characters chosen
Easy: The storylines are near the same, however Blue's endings for the stages are usually comedic whereas Red's just end. The final enemy who awakens Golden Silver is General Gray, and Green sacrifices himself turning himself into a missile, against his sister's wishes, to stop Golden Silver.
Normal: The storylines deviate, as Red constantly begins to question if what they're doing is right or if they are the good guys. Blue's storyline is separate as the members of each organization begin to speak about their pasts. In the end Red's final enemy who awakens Golden Silver is Gray, however Green is the one who awakens Golden Silver in the end of Blue's story. In the end of Red's story, Green still saves everyone, but in Blue's story Yellow takes the Seven Force and sacrifices herself to stop Golden Silver.
Hard: The Storylines deviate with a happy and a sad ending. Red is told by each individual jewel about their homeworlds and where they hail from, and the Megalith isn't truly part of it. In the end Green sacrifices himself again, but the jewels save him and tell him Golden Silver has been taught some kindness and will be closer to being correct. The Story ends with Yellow, Red, Blue, and Green rocketing back to Earth after Green says " We are all truly Gunstars, Gunstar Super Heroes".
With Blue, every beaten level leaves behind a video journal which explains what the Megalith and the Four Jewels are. Yellow joins Green in ressurecting Golden Silver and Golden Silver rockets to Earth, however this time they are unable to reach it and Red decides they use their ship as a bomb. Blue reluctantly agrees, and as they head for it Blue tells Red that he loves her. Green and Yellow are inside the Seven Force holding the pilot jewel. All four divebomb Golden Silver yelling Dr. Shadow Light's motto "Absilio Mundus!" and are killed in the explosion. The final part of the ending shows each gem saying something next to the respective character of their color talking about humanity before it ends.
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay makes a number of changes from the original Gunstar Heroes. The controls for Red and Blue no longer distinguish by the Free and Fixed Shot and both have more advanced, equal and versatile controls. The Throw from the original is taken out and replaced with more "melee" style close combat. (By pressing the A Button combined with different directions, your character can slide, uppercut and Jump Kick foes. You can also perform a Knife attack by tapping (as opposed to holding) the B button. It can also deflect any bullet or projectile.) You can also shoot in a fixed position by pressing the R Button alone, or hold R and B together to strafe. The ability to combine different weapons is absent (causing a bit of controversy among hardcore Gunstar fans). Instead, the player has the option to select from three weapon types at any time in the game.
Red:
- Force (Similar to the Force+Force combo gun from the original)
- Fire (Similar to the Force+Flame combo weapon)
- Chaser (Similar to the Lightning+Chaser combo gun)
Blue:
- Lightning
- Chaser
- Fire
Not only that, but the game also features a Supercharge Gauge that fills up as you fight enemies. When the Gauge is full the player can unleash a damaging Supercharge attack (which differs depending on which weapon you use) by double tapping R that can take out enemies and bosses much more quickly.
While the objective in the original Gunstar was to just finish the game, Super Heroes adds more replay value and incentive for the player. The game relies more on story and dialogue (although the plot still closely mirrors the original game), while most of the original Gunstar's story relied less on words and more on action. Super Heroes injects more personality into the characters. Not only that, but each of the challenge levels reveal new story revelations, dialogue and different endings. The dialogue and endings change depending on whether you select Red or Blue. Also, the game keeps up with the highest score and fastest time, much like a regular arcade game.
There are differences for each release of the game. Gunstar Future Heroes, the European release, has the most unique changes. For example, it has a language selection that includes English near-identical to the American release, and Japanese text directly taken from the Japanese release, as well as other languages. There are also additional effects like in the Game Over screen. However, there are some odd changes, like having Earth represented by a motherly Goddess figure in the Stage Select, and the removal of the actual names of level divisions (which were different in both Japanese and American releases, most likely making it a change because of the languages). Sound effect and graphical changes are also borrowed from the American release, with the exception of the new "Gunstar Future Heroes" logo, even though the Japanese text remains unchanged in those instances.[citation needed]
[edit] Reception
The game was almost universally praised by critics as a compelling action game and received high scores, even receiving several "Best GBA Game Of E3 2005" awards. However, the game still did not sell very well, and Nintendo Power has urged gamers on numerous times to get the game, disappointed that it did not appear in the top selling GBA games list.
[edit] Criticism
While most the critics liked the game, a lot of the hardcore fans found Gunstar Super Heroes to be a disappointment. They claimed that the game was too short, and essentially a remake of the original, with added levels that had nothing to do with the storyline and weren't much fun to play. The shooter level inspired by Super Thunder Blade was almost universally panned by both critics and fans, thanks to an oversized ship and buildings that made navigation frustratingly difficult along with the health of the player versus the enemy's attack damage as the stage difficulty increased. The lack of the ability to combine weapons, and not being able to throw enemies and their weapons also made the game inferior to the original in the eyes of some gamers.
[edit] Trivia
Curiously, Gunstar Red's western (IE female) voice clips seem to be recycled from previously recorded material, namely Airan Jo's voice clips in Treasure's Sin and Punishment.
