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Gunbird 1 & 2 |
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Yuan Nang |
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Join a motley crew of characters in vertical shooting
action of the old school sort. There's no buzz
gimmickry, polygonal special effects or cinematic
interludes here. Gunbird is all about shooting
steampunk robots and metal-heavy bosses while graceful
streams of return fire threaten the player. An old
school bomb attack allows for a few seconds of
invincibility while also paving the way for your
passage. Power-ups may be picked up to enhance firepower
and add oomph to a character's attack.
The first Gunbird features a cast of five characters to choose from
- Ash, the Rocketeer wannabe | Marion, the blonde
witch | A cantankerous robot named Valnus | Busty redhead
Yuan Nang | Tetsu, the old codger on a wooden ship.
First off, Gunbird is an fair shooter. The shots that stream out
from normal enemies are avoidable by sufficiently
skilled players and this rule applies to all of the end level bosses as
well. The enemy shot velocity, pacing, and distance are all designed to
give good players an escape route if they're deft enough
to map out split-second steams of buckshot. Sure, the
game was designed to munch
quarters in it's original incarnation - the arcade
coin-op, but skilled players will be able to attack the
game and fly through it without catching a bullet. One
may also go so far as to memorize the shot patterns
in Gunbird since boss attacks are fairly routine and
follow recognizable sequences.
Gunbird 2 features another 5
characters to control - Alucard the Vampire with swishy
cape | Marion from Gunbird 1 | Valpiro, who looks like
Valnus Deluxe | Tavia, a schoolgirl | Hei-Cob, the
corpulent carpet rider. Similar to the original Gunbird,
G2 is all fair. It is
entirely possible to go through the entire game and
twitch your way to the final boss without losing a
single life. To add to the fun, there are spots we
affectionately call "null zones" during boss attacks or
heavy fire situations where skilled players will be able
to stand still for 4-5 seconds at a time and watch as
streams of fire zip and zoom past without making
contact. You'll have to wag the ship every once in a
while but even then, only by a centimeter or two at a
time, all the while blasting away at the boss. To test
this for yourself, try using the schoolgirl Tavia as
your "ship." Her graphic/sprite is the smallest and
thinnest of all the five characters and she's a breeze
to use if evasion is your prerogative. A dazzling level
to watch a skilled, evasive player in action is level
1-4 when the Queen Pirates ship blows up and the metal
bird begins spitting out radial bursts of fire. Like all
good shooters, the Gunbird games give elite players an
escape route from the swarms of firepower onscreen if
they're twitchy, coordinated, and good enough. |
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