Gunstar Heroes

One word, WOW! Treasure does it again with the severly lacking Genesis hardware. This title pulls off special effects once limited to only SuperNES games. But beyond the incredibly cool graphics lies an action packed and adrenaline pumping game that is rarely seen today. Essentially it's back to Contra-sytle gameplay with lots of platform jumping and bad-guy blasting. There's also a neat Weapon System where you can mix and match different types of guns to create some wild looking shots. Not to mention huge mid-level and end-level bosses that are just as crazy. You will also be treated to some Space Shooter stages similar to Lifeforce (NES). Heck one of the later stages is set-up like a gameboard where you roll the dice and must face certain challenges (ie spectacular boss fights, mazes, and more...). Everything in this title is just so undeniably cool (well maybe besides the soundtrack). And the only other game that even comes close to this on the Genesis is in fact Contra: Hard Corps. I really would like to see more games of this type because they're just so damn fun and represent the awesome gameplay that other titles normally lack. But until then I'm sticking with Gunstar Heroes.

Overall 9.0