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The Lowdown
Pros: Two games in one package
Cons: "Cheap" gameplay, messy sprites, ever present slowdown
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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There is something about the classic shooter gameplay that won't go
away. Maybe its because people like to test their reflexes or maybe its
due to people having fond memories of shooters. Whatever the reason the
classic shooting genre has yet to fade. In fact its had an evolution
with games like Ikaruga, Einhander and R-Type final reinventing the
presentation and formula for shooters. While the genre (like all genres)
are constantly evolving there are some games that don't follow that
trend. Gunbird 1+2 is one of those games.Let me be straightforward
with you, you're either going to love Gunbird 1+2 or absolutely dislike
it. Gunbird 1+2 is an exact copy of the two arcade Gunbird games that
were released as early as 1995. The original Gunbird game was released
in America as "Mobile light force" as budget software in 2003 after the
mediocre success of Gunbird 2 released by Capcom in 2000. It is likely
that you haven't played Gunbird for you so I'll sum it up. Gunbird is
like any classic shooter out there. It you up against countless enemies
that are scrolling towards you ever faster. You get hit by any of their
incoming cannon fodder or crash into them and its over for you. You do
have plenty of arms at your disposal for your defense. Like all
shooters, you have a bomb that wipes the screen clean of all enemies and
incoming projectiles. You can also gain power ups to increase your range
of fire. Choosing a different character will ultimately decide what
picking up power ups will do.
Both Gunbird 1 and 2 provide you with a couple different characters
to choose from. There is a story revolving around the characters in both
games, but both stories don't really make sense. Besides, you're not
here to listen to a story about a group of people trying to collect a
magic mirror to bring peace to the world. You care about blasting down a
myriad number of space pirates and other villains. Both Gunbird 1 and 2
deliver in this department. There are plenty of objects, both moving and
sessile for you to shoot at. Most of these objects (read: the enemies)
shoot back. Here is where both games can get incredibly "cheap". The
bullets that are being fired at you are small, really small. You can get
hit by something that is blending into the background and not even
notice it. One of the hallmarks of shooters is being able to maneuver
your ship to avoid getting hit, but when the gameplay is blatantly
unfair the game becomes more frustrating than fun. You do have a
continues, but you don't want to have to use those. For most shooter
fans, a shooting game is about perfection. This means never getting hit
and hitting all the enemies to get the maximum score. Don't believe me?
Then check out the Ikaruga Appreciate DVD. At times the game can be so
frustratingly unfair even for shooter fans you won't want to play it.
I mentioned before that Gunbird 1 or Mobile Light Force was released
as Playstation 1 value software. By looking at the graphics you can see
why. Gunbird 1 looks like a pixilated mess of sprites. The sprites are
blown out of proportion, poorly drawn, but for what its worth they have
a lot of color. Gunbird 1 looked bad during the PSone days and doesn't
look any better now. Gunbird 2 looks a little bit better than Gunbird 1,
but not by much. It's hard to imagine Gunbird 2 compared graphically to
any other Dreamcast game. Since there was no real graphical clean up,
both games look worse compared to today's graphical standards. Still,
the shooting genre never relied on great graphics. It relied on
blistering speed without slowdown. While the controls are fairly
responsive allowing for fast movement, the game has many periods of
slowdown. Once you are at your maximum power up level and spraying the
screen with shots you'll notice it. For such poor graphics you wouldn't
expect slowdown, but its there.
Gunbird 1+2 just doesn't cut it as a playable game. There are times
when the game is fun, but there are many more times where it is more
frustrating. The only redeeming point for the collection is that you get
two games for the price of a new game, wait a minute that's not a good
deal. For the same price you could pick up a number of good titles. If
you really want a shooting game get R-Type final instead of this.
Import Friendly?
Move, shoot, move, shoot, bomb doesn't take too much to figure out.
You might miss out on the story, but you're not missing out on anything.
US Bound?
Both Gunbird games were eventually brought over to the US, could
this game become bargain bin software in the future. Highly likely it
will.
Overall
Only the people who love shooters will want to pick up Gunbird 1+2,
two poor games for the price of one still isn't a good deal.
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