A (GUN)NAIL ON THE RISK COFFIN
Yeah, another Arcade Archives review. Before you ask me "Why don't you focus on other games aside Arcade Archives?" let me tell you the answer: Today's shooters are crap. You've already seen examples in my reviews such as Hyper-5, RedRaptor, Breakthrough Gaming's Space series, Null Drifter and Aircraft Evolution, your classical testimony of shmups made by people who thinks they're Tecno Soft or Warashi and end up creating unsurmountable trash that makes you put your hands on your head in disbelief.
This mission will require to get some bruises,
but we know you can make it out alive.
In Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, when you take a lot of time to land in Mission 03, the operator will say "Be nicer to your plane, Mage 2". I mean, what do they mean with being nicer? If the plane took damage during the mission was not my problem and I wanted to make sure I land safely and spent more time, well is better to land late than crash and sorry.
Now, what the fuck does this have to do with reviewing Gunnail?
Well, because this game will drop the "Being nicer" with your ship. Wanna know why? Just keep reading.
Unlike your other shmups, being damaged means get rewarded.
Sounds masochist, but that's the daredevils gamble.
Today's Arcade Archives review is NMK's Gunnail, which will break with some of the rules of survival for the sake of high scoring. At first, Gunnail might look the same deal as Thunder Dragon; another NMK shmup which is also another "Raiden clone" to the vast list of vertical shooters that predate on Seibu Kaihatsu's success. In terms of basic mechanics, Gunnail plays a little more like Raiden than Thunder Dragon did, as we have a level clear result screen that grants you bonus points based on how many Spatial Bombs and Bonus Items you've picked without taking a single hit. In terms of gameplay, the total of selectable weapons was reduced from 4 to 3. Being the Wide Shot the initial weapon and the full frontal Laser the basic Raiden-esque weaponry, it features a new weapon for NMK standards: The "Fire Beam" which is the auto-aim artillery of your ship. Like in Thunder Dragon, your ship has a default frontal vulcan which is backed up by the pods providing the selected weapon. But unlike Raiden or Thunder Dragon, these don't get powered up by picking the same color. This time you need to pick Power Up capsules to increase the strength of both weapons. It is worth of notice that the pods move up or down based on your movement, and while doing this they make the support firing more wider or narrow. This would be extremely useful if this function was capable of being locked in place with a third button for that purpose.
Think you have what it takes?
Try to take the boss while you're close to death.
The true heart of Gunnail's gameplay lies on its bonus mechanic known as the Multiple Shield System which works in a very unexpected way. While in most shmups, clearing the level unharmed grants you more points, Gunnail does the opposite. By taking damage, it increases the value of enemies defeated. This includes bosses and even dropping the amount of power ups to max out your weapons. An expert player can definitely exploit this feature by taking deliberate damage until the shield points are gone and is one hit closer to death (Empty gauge blinking). I said "Expert" since the room for error in this scoring method is minimal as the game has no spare lives once your shields are completely down and your ship takes the death-hit. This is also a factor on the "Stage Rank" where the game will evaluate your score in that stage. So it is completely up to you if you want a low scored, but safe playthrough or take the risk and achieve multipliers of x5 and even x30 for a boss defeated with no shield left.
No life left and yet you have to survive 90 seconds.
Told you this was meant for experts.
Stages 3 and 6 will differ from the default "premise" of the game. Instead of being a regular combat zone like the many stages of the game, you'll be sent to a bonus level where the objective is to obtain the largest score possible before your 9999 seconds run out. In fact, is 99 seconds since each real time second is 100 of the in-game timer. This is where you'll be getting a Bonus level exclusive item called "Super Accelerator" to scroll the screen faster. Any enemy destroyed within the fast scrolling time will duplicate its value, making this item very important. You will be facing a boss, but is not the end of the level. With the boss down you'll be taking down item carriers until the time runs out. It's the closest thing to have a "relaxed" moment from this game as there's not too much things to dodge and more to destroy. If there's a difficulty rule on shmups that's the bullet speed. Fast, but fair. In Gunnail's case is on the moderate level. Despite being basic to moderate bullet patterns and curtains, the chance of getting hit or killed is still present, especially considering that "Damage control" is required from the player in order to exploit the bonuses.
Spectacular boss battles!
Sorry for the large sized pic, but this deserves to be seen in full-size glory.
Revolutionary mechanics are among the favorite things of console games when it comes to make fast profits, and that includes innovating coin-op conversions since replay value boosting features are the difference between a hit or a flop. But like all of NMK's catalogue, it never had a home port which is kinda disappointing as this could be a great SNES shmup or an FM Towns Marty relic. It was until January 13th, 2022 when Gunnail got its well deserved port as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives library of titles, but mostly due to Hamster's acquisition of the now defunct NMK. The Arcade Archives version features two Original Modes: Japanese and International, both being virtually identical, being the katakana "ガンネイル" (Ganneiru) and the "Distribuited by Tecmo" below NMK's copyright the only difference between Japanese and International releases. Knowing the inside-outs of the Multiple Shield System and being able to survive without energy is required to rack up the 1,500,000 points needed to unlock the Gold Trophy in Original Mode. ¿Is anyone up to the challenge?
That 3D effect was pretty ambitious for NMK.
But believe it or not, it looks very professional.
Graphically, Gunnail is immensely superior than Thunder Dragon. The first thing we will notice is that the color palette is more brighter and alive than Thunder Dragon, but still not as much as Thunder Dragon 2/Big Bang: Power Shooting. But the animation on the scenery is what it surprises not just for the details, but for the visual effects in some of the levels, being Stage 5 the best of all with the "Konami Arcade"/Namco System II-like parallax scrolling and perspective effect on the background panels as you move. That visual effect was pretty unique for NMK since they mostly go "on the cheap" but this time, they paid attention to details and they perfected what they've learned on the NMK/UPL shmup USAAF Mustang. For a science fiction game, Gunnail is more space-based than Earth-based. While Raiden was more of a Earth-to-Space mission, the route reverts on Gunnail as we start on space and end up the battle on Earth. Hamster once again didn't made a story for the game on the manual, passing that responsibility to the gamers again just like in Thunder Dragon 2 and Mad Shark. The sound department is also reasonably good, as we have a variety of mid-to-fast paced tunes that build up the emotion and thrill within the action and break down into the fast pace when the boss comes in. The bonus levels have a frenetic rhythm that matches with the premise of the time limit, but the best part of all is that is no longer the Genesis-esque sound quality from Thunder Dragon, and it feels more a mix between Shinji Hosoe and "Early Neo-Geo" style, becoming an accomplishment for NMK's standards.
GUNFACTS / CURIOSINAIL
¿How does science can explain this?
- First home port of the game.
- Fifth NMK developed and credited game in the Arcade Archives list.
- In the second level we can see floating islands with waterfalls. ¿How do they work in the cold vacuum of space?
Just a few bumps and bruises, but nothing to worry about.
Gunnail is an unique shmup that innovates by changing the adage "The more the better" into "The less the better" exploiting high-scoring through getting damaged, adding an unusual but daredevil-ish challenge that will surprise both beginners and experts. If you're looking for a game that requires expertise on mastering hard game mechanics and tough challenges, then Gunnail will definitely be among your options on hardcore shmupping.
NMK marks a positive result in the MES (Multiple Eda Scale).