Gunstar Heroes (1993)

Picture this. Your neighbours have just let you borrow a compilation cartridge for the Sega Mega Drive. You’re no stranger to a Mega Drive compilation; there were plenty of them back in the 90’s. This one is called the Classic Collection, combining 4 games in one: Alex Kidd, Altered Beast, Flicky and Gunstar Heroes.

Thematically, they are a weird bunch of games to put together.

Alex Kidd sees a small lad wander through basic platforming levels and playing “Janken!” (Rock/Paper/Scissors) with mystical beasts. The controls are like lead and the Janken seems unwinnable. Hard pass.

Altered Beast sets a couple of half naked blokes on their way to rescuing a lady, displaying grotesque graphics in the process. You reach the first boss but feel weirded out by the strange sprites. Next.

Flicky has you jumping around, rescuing baby chicks from the evil clutches of cats and iguanas. This falls under the “easy to play but difficult to master” banner. Plus your parents become obsessed with it and get better than you. Embarrassing, move on.

And so you’re left with Gunstar Heroes. Last chance for this compilation cartridge to make an impression before it goes back to your neighbour. Gunstar Heroes is a chaotic run-and-gun that feels like it’s just been shot out of a very colourful anime cannon. It fires and you hold on as tightly as you can, being hurled around fast-paced levels and exploding increasingly bizarre bosses. You have no idea what’s going on but you love it.

Gunstar Heroes was the debut game from Japanese indie developers Treasure. Jaded Konami employees broke away to form their own development studio after the original Gunstar concept was rejected. They took on contracts to build their platform, developing licence IP games, such as McDonald’s Treasure Island, but wanted to make sure their debut release was an original. And so Gunstar Heroes was born!

They made a deal with Sega and used the increased processing power of the Sega Mega Drive to make all their dreams come true. I’m not a technical computer person so I’m not going to try to explain in detail why the Mega Drive was a better platform compared to the SNES. 😅 This article by Time Extension does a great job of that. Essentially, the Mega Drive does maths quicker and better and can therefore do cooler things.

Treasure would later go on to create cult Sega classics such as Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier, but Gunstar was their first real shot at video game success. They have since sadly faded into obscurity, only re-releasing their classics onto the latest console. Which seems a shame given their debut was such a raging success.

Now imagine your equally video game obsessed best friend from school comes over and you decide to show them Gunstar Heroes. Together you’re unstoppable. You smash through to the final boss in a couple of hours. You’ll do this about 20 more times over various weekends and holidays throughout your childhood, and a few more times to relive the thrill in your teenage years. You know this game inside out and every jump, shot and dodge is timed to perfection.

I’ve read other people describe games that define their friendships and kinships, and this is definitely one of mine. There’s something about being able to rain down a bullet storm in complete synchrony with your best mate. When you’ve played a game so many times you know exactly what’s going to happen and when, it’s hard not to win. But Gunstar Heroes has some randomisation, some bits that can throw you off.

There’s the Seven Force boss fight, where your bad boy brother Gunstar Green can transform into 4 of 7 forms to kick your ass. This boss really pushed the limits of the Sega Mega Drive hardware at the time. Each form is built of small parts, made to move almost like a living creature rather than a robot.1 Some are quite easy to defeat, they don’t pose too much of a challenge. Others can throw you off and cause a fair bit of damage which can carry through to the following stages. You can see all the different boss variations in the video below:

The other frustrating area was the Dice Palace. Here, you use your character’s throw ability to toss around a large die and move around a game board. Each square on the board posed a possible threat or bonus; unsurprisingly, the threats heavily outweigh the bonuses! With two players, each player has to roll a dice individually and you face the bosses alone, which doubles the time spent and threats faced. This level reminds me of Wario Ware-style games where you’re thrown randomly into an arena and expected to very quickly figure out what to do and how to win. Luckily, most of the arenas in the Dice Palace are just “defeat this boss!” which you can easily do by shooting at said boss. However, some of them aren’t so simple.

One involves a tiny grunt who can throw you around like a ball of paper and do some hefty damage. Another has a ship that throws bombs at you and then rewinds time - don’t stand where an exploded shell is because you’ll get caught in the reverse blast when it rewinds! And then there’s Curry & Rice. Yep, you read that right, Curry & Rice. You’re not allowed to fire at this guy, so you instead have to rely on melee attacks, diving at his midriff and sliding at his legs. However, if you get too close he’ll flip and give you a good whack. If you’ve managed to reach the Dice Palace relatively unscathed, this level can take quite a big chunk out of you if you’re not careful.

I’m still fairly close with my childhood friend. As close as two 30 year old’s with children who live miles apart can be! I told him I was writing this piece and asked him what he remembered about Gunstar Heroes. We talked about the simplicity of it and the fun of trial & error with weapon combinations and tactics but without really sweating the “strategy” of the game. It’s something we agreed is missing from a lot of modern games. Nowadays, there’s in-depth, safe tutorials, and a lot of hand-holding. In Gunstar, you’re just dropped in and running around figuring things out as you go. The whole game can be smashed out in a couple of hours and fully enjoyed, which is actually perfect for both children and busy adults alike. Even if you lose, you don’t risk throwing hours of work and honing down the drain. It’s quick, easily accessible and fun, a perfect combination for gaming success.

Revisiting this game made me nostalgic for simpler couch co-op times. The days when friends would come over and we’d pick up our controllers and just PLAY games. No online connection issues, just turning on and getting straight into the action. With the recent decline in physical media becoming evermore apparent, it feels bittersweet to look back at simpler gaming times like this. I probably never would have played Gunstar Heroes if it wasn’t for borrowing this cartridge from my neighbours. I say borrow, once my parents were hooked on Flicky and I was hooked on Gunstar, we never did give it back 🤫🫢

Gunstar Heroes is a terrific game and absolutely stands the test of time when you boot it up today. It’s wild, explosive, and hilariously ridiculous in the best way possible. You can see the heart and wild experimentation that went into its creation, and this makes the fact that Treasure have faded into obscurity even sadder. Gunstar is a fantastic two-player game; I can definitely envision showing this to my son and watching him lose his mind. If you’ve never tried it, please give it a go. It’s not as punishing as other run & guns like Cuphead, and there’s ways to make it easier or more challenging depending on your weapon choices and experience. Even better, grab a friend, partner, family member, or random stranger and play with someone else. Couch co-op has never been more fun.