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Gunstar Heroes is an incredibly well renowned title.
Having launched on the Mega-Drive in the early nineties to much
praise, a sequel to the title  reportedly
entered production within days of completion. However, developer
Treasure went very quiet, very quickly, and hopes of a second outing
in the 16-bit era were quickly dashed. In a hope to appease the huge
Gunstar Heroes fanbase – with copies of the original title
rarely garnering less than £100 in auctions – a deal was bridged
with Ubi Soft in-charge of brining a conversion of the original
title to the Game Boy Advance. Launched on
February 18th 2005
, Advance Guardian Heroes on the Game Boy Advance received
mixed reviews, as newcomers to the series enjoyed its fast-paced
balancing-act of skill, accuracy and blind-adrenaline rushes while
fans of the original wondered how the title managed to fail to
recreate the beautifully simplistic gameplay of the Mega-Drive
original on a system far more powerful.
Now, some twelve years after the original’s release, Gunstar
Future Heroes enters the playing field as a true sequel. With
the might of the Game Boy Advances’ 2D processing capabilities,
the only wonder is if it will be able to continue the mad-cap
blasting mayhem without the original Co-Operative Mode.
For those new to the series, Gunstar Future Heroes is
a 2D Side-Scrolling Shoot-‘Em-Up. However, not all of the Levels
in this edition actually scroll sideways, or even in any direction.
To begin with, given the removal of the Co-Operative play, you are
given the choice to play as either Red or Blue; both play the same
but each has two specific weapons. The first and last two Levels are
strict in their play; however the mid-section of the title allows
you to progress through the Levels as you wish. Each Level has two
or more Sections – acting as a Checkpoint should you fail in your
mission or simply wish to replay a specific Section of a Level.
The game plays as a pure Shoot-‘Em-Up – your only
objective is to shoot the thousands of enemies vying for your blood
on your way to the end of the Level, and a Boss encounter or two.
The B Button executes a close-combat slash attack with a single
press, whilst  holding
will align your firing in the direction your are facing or pressing
the D-Pad, while the A Button jumps. There are several alternatives
to the basic formula; including Levels in which you are mounted on a
shuttle positioned central to the screen, and pressing left or right
will rotate the shuttle in the direction desired, and R-Type-esque
Levels in which you are given control over your direction of
movement with the L and R Triggers.
For most of the game, you have but three ranged-weapons at
your disposal. Each Red and Blue has two slightly different weapons
based around the same principle. Your basic weapon has a rapid
rate-of-fire and can shoot a full-screen length, a secondary weapon
has a target-seeking augmentation, but a much weaker impact and the
third has a short-range but is a highly devastating weapon.
While the game may only feature a handful of  Levels
– seven to be precise – the title is much like recent releases StarFox:
Assault and Yoshi’s Touch & Go! and Pac’N Roll
in that it returns to some of the earlier values in videogames;
namely the High Score Table. The longevity of the title is certainly
not hindered by its limited Level selection as the replay value
simply can’t be beaten.
Gunstar Heroes looked a picture when it arrived on the
Mega Drive
, with colourful visuals and the Mega-Drives’ best attempt at
stealing the SNES’ Mode7 thunder. Now, however, technology has all
but disgraced the first title’s attempts, with Gunstar Future
Heroes pushing the Game Boy Advance to its limit. The visuals
are still colourful, but much more defined than their
predecessors’, and each of the backdrops looks stunning. More than
this though – the scaling and rotation techniques truly have to be
seen to be believed. It’s clear that the SNES and Mega-Drive never
had the metal to produce
effects that the Game Boy Advance is pushing in its stride, however
it soon becomes apparent that the PlayStation would probably
fall-short of the mark also, with the 2D technology it houses being
more than five years the Game Boy Advance’s junior.
Gunstar Future Heroes has had quite a development
spell, and it’s easy to see why. The abilities of the Game Boy
Advance have been implemented in every way imaginable – while
keeping true to the tradition of gameplay over graphics. Gunstar
Future Heroes is an essential purchase for not only fans of the
original, but fans of Shoot-‘Em-Ups, the Game Boy Advance, and the
games industry in general.
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