Today's review is Gun Crazy.
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Gun Crazy's core mechanic is based on fast Run-N'-Gun platforming just like Gunstar Heroes and the Gunvolt series of games as they are more focused on speed rather than shooting like Contra does, so you're gonna be jumping and dashing more frequently before shooting. There is some Contra elements in this game and that's the weapons. While your regular arm cannon is a machine gun-like blaster, it can be equipped with one of the three available weapons.
SPREAD GUN (Red): This one fires a three way shot of considerable power, it's fire rate is quite slow, but it is compensated with its strength.
HEAVY MACHINE GUN (Yellow): The rapid firing vulcan of the game, combines speed with an average power level (slightly stronger than the default gun).
LASER (Green): A linear energy beam that fires continously until it runs out of ammo, similar to the Laser Force from Alien Soldier.
Like in Metal Slug, the weapons consume their own ammunition, but there's not one, but two ways to replenish your ammo. The first one is to pick a weapon of the same color, and the other is by dashing near a bullet. Each dodged bullet grants you 10 Ammo points. The maximum for all weapons is of 500. Unlike most Run-N'-Guns where you're a 1-hit-and-die character, in this game, you have 5 hit points and what's more important, you have a functional afterhit invincibility which really comes in handy during the boss battles. Along with the firing capability, you can lock your aim like Contra III, Shattered Soldier and Super Cyborg does, so you can fire while standing in one place, and to complete the combat functionality of your girl, you can punch enemies when they're close to you, saving precious ammo, but sometimes exposing you to a free shot from a nearby enemy.
Stay Cool!
Someone wakes the noise up!
Like Alien Soldier, it borrows part of the aspects of this game on the first level as it throws you more than one boss. You'll be fighting three bosses in the very first stage of the game, which gives the impression that you'll be facing boss fights throughout the level, but unfortunately, that's not gonna happen. The following stages will be the traditional 1 boss fight after a long linear walk.
The game is not excent of flaws. Fortunately, these are minor flaws that doesn't compromise the gameplay itself. The first flaw is how the Life Stock functions. Like Super Mario Bros. 1 is the zero of the game, if you die with the life stock at one, you'll be on the continue screen, and the second flaw is present on Stage 3, during the car pursuit. If you get on the very front of the car, the bullets will disappear as if you're shooting on a wall, forcing you to get close and hit them with a melee attack and taking an unnecessary risk of being hit by the enemy. A thing that deserves some criticizing is the lack of a story. Even for a short 4 stages long game, it needs a little plot, ¿Who's the girl you're controlling?, ¿Who's the enemy?, ¿How everything started? is not explained. Just hop out of the police car and shoot things non-stop. This also affects the ending; after killing the final boss you'll get nothing. "Congratulations!", roll the credits. The only good thing is that at least is not a broken engrish congratulatory message like XX Mission or Ghostbusters.
On the bright side of things, clearing the game once unlocks the 1CC mode which is the same game, but without continues. Unless you're a Gun Crazy God, this will be a challenge for you. Everyone else, stay out of it. The game drops the achievements and trophies quite easily since it requires you to hit a certain amount of points, killing 1 of each type of enemies, killing sub-bosses and complete the first two levels.
The Hollow Street
Graphically, it feels like the game borrows 16 bit elements. From Genesis to Neo-Geo and Gameboy Advance, this is mostly noticed on the levels and their detail levels which feel like a mix between Gunstar Super Heroes, Megaman X and Alien Soldier. The character sprites verge between the 8 and 16 bit, like the green insect-like enemies from Stage 1, which look very NES styled, while the protagonist and the major bosses are 16 bit like, your girl has some smooth animations which is quite good when the sprite feels and shouts "Homemade" and looks very Gunstar Heroes-like. She looks like she was done on that style. One of the things that I hate of this game is the overpixelated things. Some parts of the levels have way too pixelated things, for instance the bouncing balls in Stage 2 and the random "garbage ramps" in Stage 1, this problem makes the graphic details inconsistant with the game just like the giant explosions in Cybernator.
As for the sound department, the music feels like a fast-paced mix between electronic instruments and 8-bit chiptune. This game features a Megaman X influenced soundtrack with a slight hint of the Gunvolt series, minus the J-Pop songs like on Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX. On the other side, the sound effects sound less like game sounds and a little beat more realistic, with the exception of the "pim-pim-pim" of the Spread Gun. There's five voice samples in the game: "Let's Go!" (Level start), "Ha!" (Jump), "Eh!" (taking damage), "Aaaaah!!" (Death) and laugh after completing a level.
CRAZY FUN FACTS
YOUR SKILL IS GREAT!
- All the in-game fonts are borrowed from Blazing Star.
It was fun when it lasted.
Time to move on.
Gun Crazy is a short, yet fun Gunstar-Metal Slug mix to play for a little while until you get all the trophies. Pick, play, get the Trophies/Achievements and uninstall. The videogame equivalent of Fast Food, but on this case, is quite an enjoyable one.
If Shizuka agrees, then it's a good game.