Mastery #21: GunForce (Super Nintendo)

 

    What the hell is GunForce and why did I pick this? I didn't know that much about this game going in and although I technically did some research on this, I'm not really going to go into detail about that. More or less this game was a okay arcade game by IREM but was ported over by "Bits game". I have yet to play the arcade one so I can't properly describe the differences but this game is so slow & clunky it's ridiculous. The game in itself is roughly about 30 minutes of gameplay & isn't that difficult in the slightest. Although it has a 'hard mode' the controls of the game is already hard enough. Looking like a Contra/Metal Slug clone it sadly doesn't control the same way. Your character moves slow & jumps like they are from Castlevania. One thing that took me awhile to realize was if you 'touch' an enemy you don't immediately die thankfully. Remembering games like Contra I thought the same thing when going into this game but it does carry on it's one shot & your dead. 

    I'm not even sure why I picked this game. It may of been one of those times where I just choose a random game one day. I didn't even get to the sub-title part. This game's full name is "GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island". It sounds like a title to a RiffTrax or MST3K movie but that's the full name of the game. Other than that this game has a lot of flaws to it. The screen slowly pans to the left causing all sorts of problems and very easy ways to get hit by a bullet without have the ability to dodge it. Also it's awful inability to properly jump on machines or vehicles. And considering how short the game is it really surprises me how many vehicles they have in this game that you utilize for 30 seconds. 

    The first level alone has you drive a jeep type vehicle with a turret on the back. You can also jump into big turret guns which don't do that much except shoot the enemies that literally just run from right to left on the screen occasionally stopping to take a shot at you. Than you have a helicopter you fly in the first level...the ride is roughly about 15 seconds and the helicopter takes up the entire screen. But than you never ride a helicopter again? Why? Like why have it in the game at all? The other levels you get to ride a trolley, & a mech for the last level. I say 'mech' but really I mean it's ED-209 from Robocop. This leads on to the next part of the frustrating part of the game which was the controls which jumping & landing on things. So to ride all of these vehicles you have to be able to jump onto these vehicles to ride them right? Well this game falls for the same crap lot of other games do when you're trying to jump onto something. You have to press slightly up or down & lightly hit 'A' along with it. It's hard to explain without really experiencing it. 

On the left is the Mech you ride in GunForce on the Right is ED-209 from Robocop (Specifically the Mega Drive version of Robocop Vs. The Terminator

    Man after all is said & done I'm glad I mastered it. I really want to get this game for my collection too, although for the past few paragraphs I may of made it seem like it was a bad game. And I still stand by that notion, but even bad games have a special place in my heart. Except maybe DreamTV....