Gunhed or Spriggan for PC Engine?

[MrOldSchoolCool]

Which do you think is the better game? Inevitably, people will mention other Compile shooters but let's try to to stick to a comparison of these two games.

Seirei Senshi Spriggan or
Gunhed (aka Blazing Lazers)

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I'd go with both as they are both stellar shmups in their own right.

If you have access to a NEC PC Engine Duo RX console and either an NEC Arcade Card Pro or the Arcade Card Duo, the framerate of Seirei Senshi Spriggan is sped up (including the cool opening intro and remaining various cut scenes afterwards -- how cool is that?). I found out about this by accident one day and am the person whom originally discovered this cool trick. I don't think Compile nor any of the NEC staff knew about this cool PCE Spriggan hidden easter egg trick on the Japanese BBS forums back in the mid-1990s though.

Gunhed/Blazing Lazers is an instant classic. In fact, the old NEC TurboGrafx subsidairy based out of Illinois had Blazing Lazers as one the launch titles when the TG-16 console went sale stateside back in the summer of 1989 with an MSRP of $189.99 USD (ten dollars cheaper than a brand new Sega Genesis console at that point in time). Considering that it has a grand total of 9 stages, it can get tedious especially towards the end of the last stage when you have to battle against the end-stage bosses + final boss to finish it once & for all.

Spriggan is quite cool in that you can combine powers & upgrades (mix 'n' match) for some really killer offensive firepower to rain on the enemies. Considering that Spriggan is only an CD-Rom2 release, It's quite impressive & shows what type of cool shmup can be created in the hands of a talented developer, indeed, as with Compile (with some cool & innovative game mechanics and gameplay).

The rare Hu-Card of Gunhed Special -- a caravan type of shmup is another cool STG worth owning as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[professor ganson]

Are you asking because you're deciding which to purchase? Gunhed is high quality, reasonably low price. One of the main objections to it is that it trades quantity for quality. Didn't need to be quite so long (temporally).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I think if some stages were omitted, it'd certainly make for a meaner 'n' leaner Gunhed/Blazing Lazers STG indeed. I'd be curious to see if Complie were to release an updated version of Gunhed and what it'd look like today (with an emphasis on not so many stages presented the 2nd time around).

It seems to me that the sweet spot of a modern day STG is around 5 or 6 stages maximum whereas with Gunhed, a whopping nine stages to play through. (Of course, Capcom's CPS1 powered arcade pcb by the name of Varth sports an impressive 30 stages to try your mettle at -- it's a yen/pence/quarter muncher at heart in the end.)

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[evil_ash_xero]

Spriggan

[Kollision]

Gunhed is too long, has a broken scoring system and unbalanced difficulty.

Hence, Spriggan.

[Strider77]

Spriggan

[The Coop]

I enjoyed Spriggan more than Blazing Lasers, personally. I just thought it was better overall game in terms of music, visuals, gameplay and length.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Of course the mythos of Spriggan seems to take place in a very lush & well thought out fanasty world blended with some hard-core mecha suit designs as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[gameoverDude]

Gunhed is too long, has a broken scoring system and unbalanced difficulty.

Hence, Spriggan.

Right. If you die on the last level, it might as well be a Game Over.

If I were forced to take only one, it'd be Spriggan.

[OMFG]

Gunhed is cheap enough for anyone to have in their library. If you don't own one, get it. However, Spriggan is getting a little bit harder to find in decent shape and not at nosebleed prices.

I'd get Spriggan if the opportunity presents itself, but pick up Gunhed anytime.

[MintyTheCat]

This is difficult for me to say which is 'better' as they are both very good and pretty much you need them both. But if there was one that you should get first I would put down some points to work out which to get:

1. Do you own musha aleste on the MD? If you do then Spriggan is kind of similar.
2. Do you own any of the Star series titles: Soldier Blade, Super Star Soldier, etc.? If you do then you are closer to the experience of GunHed.
3. Is money an issue to buy a game? Spriggan I would say would cost more than GunHed.

They are both really good games though so it's still hard to say.

Both have the fairly well done weapons systems that Compile are known for but in Spriggan's case the weapon combinations are a bit more involved and lead to all sorts of outcomes.
I actually prefer musha though to Spriggan but I played that one on the MD before I had it on the PCE. Really hard to say and you got me thinking. In any case you should enjoy either or both of them.

[OMFG]

Gunhed/Blazing Lazers will always remind me of the Winter / Christmas displays of 1989/1990 at "The Wiz" in New York and New Jersey. They had a stack of CRTs running different systems (NES, Genesis, TG-16). Blazing Lazers' intro was running and they cranked that volume up! We all took turns playing and people in the crowd looked on. Management at this one store loved it when crowds gathered as we probably helped sell those Tv's by playing the games.

Gunhed seems simplistic, but for the current price..it's a good deal.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Same thing could be said at the San Francisco FAO Schwarz location during the 1989-1990 year with the TurboGrafx-16 demo kiosk running Blazing Lazers alongside with other gaming consoles in place for others to try out. I couldn't believe some of the more expensive items sold there like a $12,000 USD kiddie electric car to indulge in. It was quite something to behold/take in during those days of lore.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MintyTheCat]

I think the only in-store games that I remember playing were Mario World, Mario 3 and UN Squadron but I do remember playing R-Type III back in 1994 in good old Console Concepts It was a grand time. I got quite far on the first Turtles arcade game and had a bit of an audience. Actually, going on holiday in the UK back in the 80s and 90s was more about going to the arcades for me back then

[hanasu]

The criticisms posted here of Gunhed are fair, it's not without flaws. However it's so cheap everyone should own it anyways.

If you had to choose one choose Spriggan.

[d0s]

Blazing Lazers was the first vertical shooter I owned so I have a huge fondness for it but Spriggan's probably the better game

e: A flash cart and CD burner will eliminate any "which one should I get" questions. Prices for games are absurdly inflated and the console stuff especially isn't worth it

[gray117]

Just fonder of gunhed in relation to pc engine... kind of a legacy/defining title.

...but Spriggan is the more impressive choice, and, as stated, gunhed is probably the lesser game in as objective a manner as possible + if I had a cd unit around that time and a copy of spriggan I could probably see my bias/opinion being the other way around

[djsheep]

Gunhed is absolutely classic material and readily available, however I'm going to go with the status quo here and say Spriggan too.

[Vimtoman]

Gunhead is a great game. Extra width on the gameplay area. The rotating bullets. Fast scrolling. Sampled speech. Thumping samples when shooting the floating brains. Love it. Always had it in my collection.

But....I guess overall Spriggan is a better game

[munchiaz]

Its gotta be Spriggan. Both are great. I really enjoy the weapon system in Spriggan. In fact its one of if not my favorite shooter on the PCE