[GBA] Gunstar Super Heroes ROM Download

Gunstar Super Heroes ROM Screenshots

Gunstar Super Heroes ROM Description

Gunstar Heroes for GBA was developed by Treasure and published by Sega in 1993. It is a Contra-style action platformer for 1 or 2 players simultaneously.

Storyline

The Gunstar family has protected the Gunstar 9 planet for many generations, but now Colonel Red, who looks like M. Bison’s little brother, is threatening your planet. He has kidnapped and brainwashed your older brother, Green Gunstar, and gathered four mystical gems to reactivate the giant robots, Gold and Silver, to attack the planet. He has even turned the planet worker droids into his army. It’s a good thing that C-3PO and R2-D2 escaped before this happened.

Gameplay

You start the game as one of the Gunstar twins, either Red or Blue. There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. The game allows you to play the first four stages in any order. Still, after completing those four stages, you will have to finish the final set of stages in a specific order, in a style similar to the original Mega Man series. You only get one life with 100 vitality points, but those points can go pretty far, and you can also earn extra vitality points that you can carry over to other stages. You also get unlimited continuous, but the game is still reasonably challenging. In 2-player mode, when one player dies, they can continue by taking half of the surviving player’s vitality points.

Control-wise, the A button switches your weapons, the B button fires your guns and can be used to throw some enemies at close range, and the C button jumps. In some states, you can double-jump to switch sides of the screen. However, pressing C twice on most stages will quickly have your character perform a body attack for Red or a jump kick for Blue.

You can also climb or hang on some edges. Gunstar Red shoots while moving, while Gunstar Blue stops moving while shooting. In 2-player mode, you can throw your partner at the enemies without hurting the other player. How fun is that!

Your weapons can also be powered up differently depending on the power. Four main power-ups exist: Force, Plasma, Lightning, and Fire. You can hold up to 2 at a time with each combination having a unique result, for instance: two fire will create the ultimate flamethrower while a Force and a Fire will create exploding fireballs. I prefer the double Chasers, which are the ultimate homing weapon.

Enemies and Level Design

Gunstar Heroes has built a fantastic enemy and level design system. Enemies are varied, and there are a ton of well-animated bosses, some very big and made up of several combined sprites and the levels are large and very well diversified.

Graphics and Music

Graphically, the game looks superb, sharp, and colorful; the music is also top-notch. Treasure scored with this one.

Conclusion

This Gunstar Heroes is a blast to play and a hidden gem on the GameBoy Advance that you should not miss, whether you play alone or, even better, have a friend to play along.