3RRDC Gunbird 2

Ahh Gunbird 2. Here we have the best dreamcast game to ever be
released in the states. A wonderful 2d shooter with challenging game
play, good graphics, fun music, and enjoyable characters, no matter
how you slice it, gunbird 2 is simply fantastic. Although it says capcom
on its package, hardcore shooter fans will already know that it's the
great Psikyo who developed it (you can find the original on import
saturn). But let's thank Capcom for publishing it!

The story is a weird one that fits well with the bright and happy tone of
the game. You have 5 selectable characters, and 2 more secret ones,
who for whatever reason or another, are looking for the fabled
medicine god to give them some magic medicine to help cure his/her
various problems. But an evil gang of ruffians known as the "Queen
Pirates" are also after the medicine and they will stop at nothing to
prevent you from getting it first. But first our heroes have to gather 3
elements before they can find the medicine god. Who will find the
elements first? Characters are all very fun and memorable. From
marion the witch girl who is 17 but in a 9 year old's body, to valpiro the
russian robot things are always interesting. Look out for morrigan from
darkstalker's fame! She and one other…ahem…unique…character are
playable but secret. Hint try pressing up or down on the random select
in the character select screen.

Gunbird 2 has 7 levels of bullets flying everywhere. Depending on the
difficulty level of course. You can set it from level 1 (baby) to level 7
(very hard). Many players will find that playing the game on level 4
normal is ungodly hard enough but with practice and some
coordination and maybe luck you can do it. Maybe. Also of note are the
different game modes you can play. In original 1 the screen has bars
on the right and left sides. This is to try and achieve an arcade cabinet
like screen but formatted to a TV. In original 2 (which is the worst to
play in my opinion) the screen will scroll up or down when you reach
the top or bottom of the screen. Then we have arcade mode and I am
oh so thankful this was included. The screen is rotated 90 degrees to
match the height and width of the arcade cab. So you have to turn
your TV on the side to play it correctly. With a small 13 inch TV it is
very easy to flip it on the side and play. But be careful. With larger TVs
you might drop it and kill someone. Or something. And not all TVs
support this, (not even sure if mine does) so you might mess it up. Be
careful. Or you could just lie down and play.

Ok so once I'm actually playing what's that like? Well in short, shoot
everything and dodge everything. You only get 1 hit and if shot you
lose a life. But you get like 3 to start off with. You can use rapid fire, a
close attack, a bomb attack (each character has different looking
bombs and close attacks. And even rapid fire for that matter as they
look different.) You can also shoot charged shots (which again all look
different) But that takes up energy from your power bar. Refill it with
killing things. You move the character with the d-pad. No control stick
support. In the levels you will find power ups to make your shots
stronger. You also find bomb powerups as those are your best screen
clearing attack so don't waste them. You can also find coins and (pro
tip) if you touch them when they are flashing and then touch another
one when flashing you will get a combo and this will greatly increase
your score. Don't forget to grab a friend and play 2 player mode.

Lets talk about the sound. Characters speak in mostly Japanese but
also say some things in cute English like "power up". The music is very
cheerful and bouncy. But all is not well. Capcom has removed voices
from the end of level story sequences. Originally you had still pictures
who had voices, now we get the pictures with text. No idea why these
were removed, but you can still here them in the hidden debug mode.
The good sound goes well with the 2d animeish character designs and
overall art design. While the graphics may not be the best 2d I have
ever seen they are really good and they do the job. Backgrounds are
varied and look nice, from an arctic base to inside a hidden temple,
everything looks good.

But with all this only 7 levels? This game sounds kinda short. Well yeah
it is. If on an easy difficulty you should be able to beat it in about 20
minutes. But this game will always keep you coming back for more.
First off, there's a gallery with all the character art in the game (sans
endings) and special exclusive art. There are over 50 pics to look at in
there. But when you first start playing, you'll want to play through the
game over and over again because of all the different endings. In one
player, each character has 2 endings, you can choose either one at
the end when prompted to. And in 2 player character pairs will get
special and unique endings! Marion with morrigan, marion with valpiro,
valpiro with morrigan, and on and on, it's just great. Be warned some
endings are a bit "questionable" and capcom even toned down some
endings with secret character aine the homosexual samurai. But wait,
what if I have no one to play with? How will I see the 2 player endings.
Man psikyo and capcom got you covered. They have a 1 player , 2
player mode? Huh? It's simple. You choose two characters and play as
one at a time. When one dies you then control the next one. This mode
was a great addition.

Ok so once you've seen all the endings then what? Well something
magical should happen. Then you should be playing just to play and get
high scores and test yourself to see how far you can get using only one
credit. Let me tell you it has been a long time since I sat down and
played a game just to see if I could get a higher score, but gunbird 2
with its pick up and play fun just keeps pulling me in. The replay value
will be affected by how much you put intio the game and how far you
want to challenge yourself. Also if you're just into anime you should
like playing this game. I've already mentioned the game has some
sexual tones here and there. Why just look at Shark the leader of the
queen pirates. Fans of anime girls will be pleased (cue the drolling
otaku).

Overall gunbird 2 is nothing short of perfection. Despite the edits to
the American release (but they still left in a lot of weird stuff so don't
worry), those are still not enough to prevent me from giving this game
a perfect 100. If you own just one dreamcast game, make it this one.
And come on, it only takes 9 blocks of memory!

Review by: Orochi Sonic