The world was nearing its end. An evil organization created the ultimate weapon, Golden Silver, the God of Ruin, to destroy countless cities on Earth from the moon. The Gunstars (Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow) seeing the Earth turn into a living hell before them and fueled by anger, had a showdown with the powerful Golden Silver. At length, after an arduous battle, they defeated the evil God of Ruin. To make sure he was never resurrected, they sealed his body on the moon and took the 4 gems that powered him, and sealed them away in separate places on Earth. The Gunstars, having been pushed to their limits, prayed for a new civilization to arrive, and they began their long sleep. All that is, except for one…
Time passed, and a new civilization was built on Earth. A legend was spread across the land. “Revive the God that sleeps on the moon, and he will guide the most righteous people to Utopia.”
Grey, the commander of the dictatorship calling themselves “Empire”, believed in this legend and attempted to carry it out. So he sent people to the moon in a battleship called the “Ark”, in order to mine for the 4 gems that would call the God forth. It was then that the leader of the underground mining excursion, Professor Brown, uncovered some capsules, in which the Gunstars were having their long sleep.
Once they awakened, they learned of the Empire’s plan to revive Golden Silver. Their companion, Green, whom they had remembered being with them until the very last moment, had lost his previous memories and was assisting the Empire in the revival of the God of Ruin.
“We won’t let such a tragedy happen again! We’ll get back the gems and put a stop to the revival of Golden Silver!” Once Professor Brown heard the Gunstar’s words, he decided to betray the Empire and promised to help the Gunstars in their battle.
From turning the cart on and being greeted with scaling sprites and clever visual tricks, to the graphics, audio and gameplay, Treasure delivered a completely polished, and *fun* game for their first release on the Mega Drive.
The visuals are lush. Vibrant colours, animated sprites and ingenious bosses – made up of individual sprites moving in unison, giving the illusion of nearly full screen enemies – all moving at a smooth pace. The mine level cranks the speed up, never frame skipping, and throws in anti-gravity scooters… the game is constantly surprising and engaging.
It’s no surprise that Gunstar Heroes is widely regarded as a must have game on the Mega Drive, and Treasure have earned themselves a deservedly strong reputation when producing games of this quality.
Notes
Treasure was founded by a team of ex-Konami developers and designers, and this is no big surprise if you play Rocket Knight Adventures followed by Gunstar Heroes.
In an interview with Treasure, the President says Gunstar Heroes was made in six months by six developers, running in tandem with another development team working on their big name franchise McDonald’s Treasure Land. Securing the franchise allowed them to produce Gunstar Heroes, an original game, but had no guarantee of commercial success.
A word of warning/advice, he game’s a little easy if you use the blue and green weapons combined…
Overview
The world was nearing its end. An evil organization created the ultimate weapon, Golden Silver, the God of Ruin, to destroy countless cities on Earth from the moon. The Gunstars (Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow) seeing the Earth turn into a living hell before them and fueled by anger, had a showdown with the powerful Golden Silver. At length, after an arduous battle, they defeated the evil God of Ruin. To make sure he was never resurrected, they sealed his body on the moon and took the 4 gems that powered him, and sealed them away in separate places on Earth. The Gunstars, having been pushed to their limits, prayed for a new civilization to arrive, and they began their long sleep. All that is, except for one…
Time passed, and a new civilization was built on Earth. A legend was spread across the land. “Revive the God that sleeps on the moon, and he will guide the most righteous people to Utopia.”
Grey, the commander of the dictatorship calling themselves “Empire”, believed in this legend and attempted to carry it out. So he sent people to the moon in a battleship called the “Ark”, in order to mine for the 4 gems that would call the God forth. It was then that the leader of the underground mining excursion, Professor Brown, uncovered some capsules, in which the Gunstars were having their long sleep.
Once they awakened, they learned of the Empire’s plan to revive Golden Silver. Their companion, Green, whom they had remembered being with them until the very last moment, had lost his previous memories and was assisting the Empire in the revival of the God of Ruin.
“We won’t let such a tragedy happen again! We’ll get back the gems and put a stop to the revival of Golden Silver!” Once Professor Brown heard the Gunstar’s words, he decided to betray the Empire and promised to help the Gunstars in their battle.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunstar_Heroes
Comment
From turning the cart on and being greeted with scaling sprites and clever visual tricks, to the graphics, audio and gameplay, Treasure delivered a completely polished, and *fun* game for their first release on the Mega Drive.
The visuals are lush. Vibrant colours, animated sprites and ingenious bosses – made up of individual sprites moving in unison, giving the illusion of nearly full screen enemies – all moving at a smooth pace. The mine level cranks the speed up, never frame skipping, and throws in anti-gravity scooters… the game is constantly surprising and engaging.
It’s no surprise that Gunstar Heroes is widely regarded as a must have game on the Mega Drive, and Treasure have earned themselves a deservedly strong reputation when producing games of this quality.
Notes
Treasure was founded by a team of ex-Konami developers and designers, and this is no big surprise if you play Rocket Knight Adventures followed by Gunstar Heroes.
In an interview with Treasure, the President says Gunstar Heroes was made in six months by six developers, running in tandem with another development team working on their big name franchise McDonald’s Treasure Land. Securing the franchise allowed them to produce Gunstar Heroes, an original game, but had no guarantee of commercial success.
A word of warning/advice, he game’s a little easy if you use the blue and green weapons combined…