Hei-Cob doesn't suck? (Gunbird 2)

[dboeren]

I've been playing Gunbird 2 on and off for about a week now, and I'm finding it rather difficult. Certainly more difficult than Strikers 1945 II. Following Bernard Doria's advice, I've been mostly using Valpiro. His melee attack is excellent just like everyone says. There are quite a few good players using Marion of course, and there are a few Tavia players who do pretty well. Aine has a good reputation for his speed, and Alucard seems to be recognized as a reasonable jack-of-all-trades character.

NOBODY likes the fat arab. Hei-Cob is a dumb looking character and obviously the worst one you can possibly choose in Gunbird 2.

OK, smarties. Answer me this then... How come without any practice I tried one game with Hei-Cob and got to level 4? I only have a 50-50 shot of getting to level 4 with Valpiro, who I've got some experience with, but Hei-Cob pops right up there. Maybe I got lucky? I dunno. Perhaps fat boy's drawbacks get worse in the higher levels, but on 1-4 he was doing OK. I got killed around the 2nd zepplin, which means he made it about 2/3rd of the way through to the boss.

Here's what seems to be good about Hei-Cob:
1. His shots are pretty darn powerful. Those scimitars for his secondary weapon seem to do great damage, and they are piercing too.

2. His melee attack is delayed-effect.

What? THAT is supposed to be why he sucks! His melee attack takes freakin' forever to deploy, so it's useless!

Don't be so hasty... Now maybe this is just my odd playing style, or because I haven't memorized the game, or whatever. But I found the delayed effect to be fairly useful.

In a lot of situations, a large enemy (or a boss) appears and the instant they become shootable they unleash a barrage. Now maybe you can memorize exactly where to stand so you can melee them and not get killed, but I'm not so good at that. With Hei-Cob I can drop the attack BEFORE they materialize, have time to get out of trouble, and the attack his them after they appear.

To a lesser extent, if an enemy is too hard to approach head-on, I may be able to throw an attack to their side and have them walk into it, as long as I know when they are about to move.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think. Am I crazy? Is my play so bad that a bad character "works" for me? I just tried him out as a lark, but now I'm thinking it might be worth practicing him a bit and see what happens. It sure would be funny to see a Hei-Cob entry on the high score list

[Super Mega C]

I think people just don't like him because he's fat. Plus, he's arab. I don't think people are very fond of arabs right now. I'm not racist, but just having to hear about them on the news all the time makes me not want to play one in a game. It's my main reason for not buying the new prince of persia games, believe it or not. Yes I know that sounds racist, but believe me I'm not. I'm just sick of arabs.

[Nuke]

I'm actualy more sick of Americans. Those are always on my telly.....

[TVG]

I think people just don't like him because he's fat. Plus, he's arab. I don't think people are very fond of arabs right now. I'm not racist, but just having to hear about them on the news all the time makes me not want to play one in a game. It's my main reason for not buying the new prince of persia games, believe it or not. Yes I know that sounds racist, but believe me I'm not. I'm just sick of arabs.

faggot.

oh and no one plays him cause hee's too damn slow to go past 1-4, wich is a shame since he's quite fun to use, and packs a punch if you manage to shoot multiple charged attacks at a boss + his bombs.
still he's very slow, the game is just harder with him.

[BulletMagnet]

Heh, hey, if you can use him decently, why change it just because others don't like him? I was the only Tateha user on the ESPGaluda board for awhile, and a bit proud of it, so why not make it sort of a personal mission to become one of the few Hei-Cob players around? "Bah, all of you can KEEP Morrigan! Fear the Fat Bomb!"

[IlMrm]

, and packs a punch if you manage to shoot multiple charged attacks at a boss + his bombs

Very true. When combined, they packed quite a wallop.

When using Hei-Cob for fun, I tried playing him like the Hayate for Strikers 2. I would lay down the charged shots ahead of enemies. But I don't fare too well with him. But as mentioned, he's too slow, his melee attack is too slow to come out, and his regular shots suck.

It's a shame his melee attack takes too long to come out, so you really have to release it ahead of time, and in the right place. It's very powerful though.

His endings are very funny though, especially the one with Valpiro.

[professor ganson]

Just the other night I was playing as Hei-Cob when my 6-year-old daughter and I were playing together on Child-level. I thought that playing as Hei-Cob would make it more challenging since he has a fat hit box. It was actually quite fun. I really liked the sound he made when he got wasted.

[Dandy J]

I don't play anyone but Hei-Cob in GB2.

[teenwolf]

I think people just don't like him because he's fat.

wth you b*stard, do you hate Santa too?!?

What kind of person doesn't find a jolly fat man flying across the sky amusing? Were you abused by one as a child or something??!?!@#

Plus, he's arab. I don't think people are very fond of arabs right now. I'm not racist, but just having to hear about them on the news all the time makes me not want to play one in a game.

That's ok, I'm sure it was the same way for similiar stereotypical depictions of jews, asians, mexicans and blacks in pop culture at some point or another too. And always showing up in the news? How dare they. Kind of makes you sick to your stomach to see them at all after that, doesn't it. Dirtying up our news and lives...

It's my main reason for not buying the new prince of persia games, believe it or not. Yes I know that sounds racist, but believe me I'm not. I'm just sick of arabs.

I don't blame you, after WW2 I bet people were tired of hearing about the Jews too. It was all "jew this" and "jew that", with "arab-israeli" conflicts and birthing of a nation and crap. Man, it makes me sick just to think about it. I bet kids threw away their Zionist soldier/kibbutz farmer action figures in droves.

[The n00b]

Okay all of you leave Hei-Cobb alone! The man might be a little slow(like a typical porker) but he gets the job done and he looks cool doing it. I don't even like fat people(I'm afraid of catching diabetes and being downwind of them) but I like this guy. He's got a cool genie and his attacks pack a wallop.

He's not some kind of whako Bin Laden wannabe either. He lets anybody play as him. He doesn't go on diatribes about the Jews and he has yet to call me a "dirty mexican who should go swim back across the river." He doesn't suicide bomb "godless heathens." In fact, you must AVOID BULLETS in order to be a good Hei-Cobb player. This man is a role model not a villain so get off his back.

Oh yeah and stereotypes are NOT cool.

[CMoon]

Um...what's the final boss in the non DC versions? I thought a big dog was the final boss (hehe, maybe that's the boss when you beat it on monkey!)

[TVG]

the question is: can anyone here at least get to 1-7 with him on full defaults and 1 credit?

[Thunder Force]

Racially directed comments are not acceptable folks. Locking thread, please don't bring up this kind of thing in Shmups Chat in future.