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Gunstar Heroes

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Gunstar Heroes[a] is a run and gun video game developed by Treasure and published by Sega. It was Treasure's debut game, originally released on the Mega Drive in 1993. The game's premise is centered around the exploits of the Gunstars, a mercenary family out to stop the Empire, a dictatorship that seeks to revive an ancient weapon by using the power of four gems hidden throughout the planet. It has been listed among the best video games of all time by various publications.

Gunstar Heroes
File:GunstarHeroesMDcover.png
Developer(s)Treasure
Publisher(s)Sega
Producer(s)Masato Maegawa
Programmer(s)Mitsuru Yaida
Hideyuki Suganami
Artist(s)Tetsuhiko Kikuchi
Hiroshi Iuchi
Composer(s)Norio Hanzawa
Platform(s)Mega Drive, Game Gear
ReleaseMega Drive
  • WW: September 1993
Game Gear
  • JP: March 24, 1995
Genre(s)Run and gun
Mode(s)Single-player, cooperative

The game was later ported to the Game Gear by M2. In February 2006, Gunstar Heroes was released as part of the Gunstar Heroes: Treasure Box Collection for the PlayStation 2. It is also available on the Wii's Virtual Console. In 2009, it was released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. In 2015, a 3D Classics version was released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop.


Gameplay

 
Gameplay screenshot

Gunstar Heroes is a run-and-gun side-scrolling shooter much in the vein of Contra. The playable characters, Red and Blue, represent different control schemes: Red being free shot, which allows the player to move freely while shooting; and Blue being Fixed Shot, which makes the player stay fixed in one spot while firing. There are four different basic weapon types the player can choose from at the beginning of the game: Force, which fires a rapid series of small bullets; Lightning, which fires straight lasers that pierce through enemies; Chaser, which fires stars that home in on enemies; and Flame, a short range flamethrower that is very powerful.[1] These weapons are dropped as power-ups throughout the game, and the player may hold onto two at a time. By combining two weapons, a new weapon can be formed. For example, combining Lightning and Flame results in a short range beam weapon that ignores most collision from walls and enemies. Counting the basic weapons, there are a total of 14 different possible weapons in the game. In addition to using weapons, the player can engage enemies in close quarters combat. Enemies can be tossed, and other moves can be performed, such as sliding and jumping attacks, and a long-range skid.

The first four stages of the game can be played in any order from a stage select screen. Unlike most games in the genre, the player has life in the form of a numerical health counter. However, the player only has one life, although there are unlimited continues. The game's main focus is on its boss encounters, which are often made up of multiple sprites allowing for fluid movement and simulated scaling and rotation. There are often multiple bosses per stage, each with their own special moves and abilities.

Development

In 1991, several Konami employees led by programmer Masato Maegawa began holding planning sessions at coffee shops for an original game.[2][3] They were establishing early concepts for an action shooting game, a genre they were familiar with.[3] They pitched their game idea to Konami, but were rejected and told it would not sell.[4] Maegawa and his team were growing frustrated with the industry's reliance on sequels to established franchises and console conversions of arcade games to generate revenue.[4] They felt Konami had fallen into this pattern as a large company, growing reliant on sequels such as in their Castlevania and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.[4] Maegawa's team felt consumers wanted original games,[4] and so in 1992, they left Konami and established Treasure to continue development on their original game.[5]

 
Treasure believed the Motorola 68000 microprocessor in the Mega Drive was best suited for the action games they wanted to make.

Treasure wanted to develop their game for Sega's Mega Drive.[4] Maegawa was interested in the platform because of its Motorola 68000 microprocessor, which he felt was easier to program for than the Super NES, and more powerful.[4] The team decided to approach Sega for a publishing contract.[2] When they first presented their design documents to Sega, they were not granted approval because they lacked a proven track record.[3] Instead, Sega contracted Treasure to develop McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (1993).[3] Several months into development, they were finally granted approval to work on their original action game.[3] They originally were using the working title Lunatic Gunstar, thinking "Lunatic" was a good description of the game's stimulating action.[2] Sega of America felt the word held a negative connotation, so rejected it.[3] The team also considered Blade Gunner, in homage to Blade Runner, but this was also rejected because of copyright restrictions.[3] Sega of America eventually suggested the word "Heroes", so Gunstar Heroes became the final title.[3]

Treasure consisted of around 18 people, most being programmers from Konami.[4] The staff was split in half to work on both Gunstar Heroes and McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure in parallel.[3][4] The core team behind Gunstar Heroes consisted of six people: two programmers, two graphic designers, and two sound programmers.[4] The staff (known by their nicknames) was composed of main programmer Yaiman, enemy and boss programmer Nami, graphic designers Han and Iuchi, composer Non, and sound effects programmer Murata.[2] The role of game designer did not exist within Treasure; all game design and planning was a collaboration from everyone involved.[5] The team felt they had more freedom working under Sega than Konami.[4]

Gunstar Heroes was the team's first experience programming for the Mega Drive, having come off of programming for the Super NES at Konami.[3][5] They felt the Mega Drive's processor was more powerful, capable, and friendly to experimentation than other consoles, and more suited for action games and the sophisticated graphical effects they were looking to create.[3][4][5] The team implemented heavy graphical effects in an exercise in design experimentation (not an effort to push the hardware).[5] Some of that experimenting was done with the system's sprite rotation and scaling capabilities, which evoked a sense of depth.[2][3][4] The Mega Drive had its limitations however, as it could only display 64 colors on screen at any time.[4] The team placed extra effort on coloring to compensate.[5] Early backgrounds were drawn with a 16 color palette, but they looked desolate, so ultimately two palettes for 32 colors were used.[2] The team also used programming tricks to make it appear like three to four layers were present, although the Mega Drive only supports two.[4]

The team approached Gunstar Heroes with an "anything goes" concept, that led to many ambitious ideas being implemented into the final game.[2][3] One such concept was the weapon combination mechanic, which was conceived in the early planning stages.[5] They experimented with weapon attributes until the end of development,[5] and designed the game so players would continue discovering new weapons and devise new ways to complete stages.[2] The processor also made articulated multi-limb enemies possible, like the boss "Seven Force", which was programmed by Nami along with all other bosses.[3] Because moving around large sprites was difficult due to limited video RAM, Seven Force was built by combining circles and squares to make one large character.[3] Maegawa claims the game could have never worked on the Super NES because the boss animations required many computations.[4] The standard enemy characters, designed by Han, were drawn on the screen by combining a top and bottom sprite, allowing for more animation patterns with lower memory usage.[3]

Development of Gunstar Heroes lasted around nine to ten months.[2][4] Maegawa got approval to add a Treasure logo when the game booted, which he felt was a rare opportunity for developers to get in that era.[3] The game was 16 Megabits but compressed to fit under 8.[4]

Release

Although McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure was completed first, Treasure decided to first release Gunstar Heroes because they wanted their debut to be an original game.[3] It was nearly rejected for publishing by Sega of America, only being approved by producer Mac Senour after 12 others rejected it. Senour believed the game's small character sprites contrasted with the more popular large sprites at the time, leading to the other producers rejecting it. If Senour had rejected the game, it would have not been published in North America. Senour did ask Treasure to change one boss character because it looked to similar to Adolf Hitler.[6]

Gunstar Heroes was released worldwide in September 1993.[2] Sega underestimated demand in Japan where their initial shipment was only 10,000 units.[7] Meanwhile, Sega of America was not typically confident in games from Sega of Japan, so also ordered a small initial print run.[6] The game was not heavily promoted and spread more by word of mouth.[8] GameFan particularly enjoyed the game and published the first English interview with Maegawa.[8] The game shipped in total around 70,000 copies in Japan, and 200,000 overseas.[7] An arcade version was also released for the Sega Mega-Play arcade board.[3]

A Game Gear port was developed by M2. Sega asked M2 if they wanted to make a Game Gear game after being impressed by their Gauntlet port for the Mega Drive. M2 wanted to port The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, but they were ultimately handed Gunstar Heroes. Since the Mega Drive version pushed hardware limitations, a Game Gear port was difficult.[9] The port had some changes, such as the Dice Palace being removed, and it ran at lower frame rate.[2] It was released on March 24, 1995.[10]

Later releases

Sega released Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box in 2006, a compilation of Treasure games for the PlayStation 2 as part of their Sega Ages 2500 series.[11] Included on the compilation were Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy (1994), and Alien Soldier (1995).[2][11] The games are run through an emulator and includes display options for filters and resolutions. The Japanese and international versions of each game were included, along with the Game Gear ports of Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy, and a Mega Drive prototype of Gunstar Heroes.[12] A gallery is included with scans of the original instruction manuals, concept illustrations, and design documents.[13] This compilation was released digitally on the PlayStation Store in 2012.[13]

The game was ported by M2 to the Nintendo 3DS in 2015 as part of Sega's line of 3D Classics.[14] Gunstar Heroes was originally not considered for the series because converting the game's backgrounds into a layered 3D effect was thought to be impossible, but these perceived problems were later overcome.[15] In addition to supporting stereoscopic 3D, the game features two new game modes. "Gunslinger" mode starts the player with a full arsenal of every weapon type, and "Mega Life" mode starts the player with double the normal amount of health.[16] The game also supports local cooperative play and includes both the Japanese and international versions.[14]

Gunstar Heroes has also been released on the Xbox 360,[17] PlayStation 3,[18] Wii,[19] and Windows.[20] A Sega Forever version for mobile devices was released in 2017.[21]

Reception

Legacy

Notes

  1. ^ ガンスターヒーローズ (Gansutā Hīrōzu) in Japan

References

  1. ^ Gunstar Heroes: Weapons Details, Game Informer 181 (May 2008): 105.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Davies, Jonti (April 2008). "The Making Of: Gunstar Heroes". Retro Gamer. No. 50. pp. 56–61.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "前川正人「ガンスターヒーローズ」スーパーバイザー". Sega (in Japanese). Retrieved 2018-12-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help) (Translation)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "An Interview With: Treasure". GameFan. Vol. 1, no. 11. October 1993. p. 60.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Stuart, Keith. Sega Mega Drive/Collected Works. p. 291. ISBN 9780957576810.
  6. ^ a b Horowitz, Ken (October 23, 2013). "Interview: Mac Senour (SOA Producer)". Sega-16. Retrieved 2018-12-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  7. ^ a b McFerran, Damien (2017-10-31). "Treasure's Masato Maegawa Wants Sega To Make A Mega Drive Mini". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2018-12-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  8. ^ a b Turner, Benjamin (2016-03-25). "13 Years of Treasure: A Retrospective from 1UP.com". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved 2018-12-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "「3D スペースハリアー」インタビュー 「SEGA AGES」から「バーチャルコンソール」、そして3DSにいたるまでの道のり". GAME Watch (in Japanese). 2012-12-26. Retrieved 2018-12-21. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help) (Translation)
  10. ^ "Game Gear Shock: ガンスターヒーローズ". Sega Saturn Magazine (in Japanese). April 1995. p. 126.
  11. ^ a b "「SEGA AGES 2500シリーズ Vol.25 ガンスターヒーローズ ～トレジャーボックス～」～奥成プロデューサーに再びインタビュー!～". GAME Watch (in Japanese). March 14, 2006. Retrieved 2018-12-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  12. ^ Kalata, Kurt. "Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box". Siliconera. Retrieved 2018-12-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  13. ^ a b "SEGA AGES 2500 | Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box". Sega. Retrieved 2018-12-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  14. ^ a b Town, Jonathan (2015-08-20). "Review: 3D Gunstar Heroes (3DS eShop)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2018-12-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  15. ^ "Sega's Newest Title in their 3D Remaster Project: "3D Gunstar Heroes" Interview Part 1". Sega Blog. August 18, 2015. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved 2018-12-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Sega's Newest Title in their 3D Remaster Project: "3D Gunstar Heroes" Interview Part 2". Sega Blog. August 20, 2015. Archived from the original on June 10, 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Hatfield, Daemon (2009-06-10). "Gunstar Heroes Review". IGN. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  18. ^ Hatfield, Daemon (2009-06-11). "Gunstar Heroes Review". IGN. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  19. ^ Thomas, Lucas M. (2006-12-11). "Gunstar Heroes Virtual Console Review". IGN. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  20. ^ Frank, Allegra (2016-02-20). "Sega offers up Gunstar Heroes and more on Steam for free". Polygon. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  21. ^ Musgrave, Shaun (2017-12-21). "'Gunstar Heroes' Review - Treasure it, Forever". TouchArcade. Retrieved 2018-12-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
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