Gunstar Heroes (Wii VC) review

Gamestyle still finds it hard to believe that Gunstar Heroes was the very first game to come from fanboy's favourite, Treasure. When released, the game gave Mega Drive owners a moral boost, allowing them to tell SNES owners their system couldn't play it. It may have seemed a pointless exercise, with Nintendo fans having a wealth of great games for their system, but Gunstar Heroes was such a great game back in 1993, that anyone who was into the run 'n' gun genre had to experience it.Taking control of one of the Gunstar twins, it is your job to take down the evil Colonel Red, whose nefarious plan is to reactivate a deadly robot so he can strip planet G-9 of all its natural resources. As with most shoot 'em ups, the story barely matters. All you need to do is blast everything in your path - so far, so Contra. The difference between this and Konami's series is the weapon system. Two weapons can be carried at any one time, and - obviously - can be selected at will. The other option is to combine the two and create a third weapon, allowing for different kinds of death bringing firepower. It's a great option, and offers some freedom to the player in what is generally a limited genre.Unlike most other titles in the same vein, the design is more akin to a cartoon. Characters are detailed and have exaggerated features, villains look suitably dastardly and some bosses are quite abstract (just look at the mid level boss on level one). The game has a distinctive style all of its own, and elements of the design still crop up in Treasure's later titles. So, is it worth owning a 14-year-old Mega Drive game on your shiny new Wii? Well, in the case of Gunstar Heroes, yes. Despite the fact it's a little short, it retains that addictive gameplay and clean presentation it had on its original release. It provides a challenge, yet never infuriates, has a two player mode, great music and will cost you only 800 points. Gunstar Heroes isn't just one of the best Mega Drive games - it's not just one of the finest 16-bit titles - it is one of the most superb pieces of code ever written. And how many debuts from a developer can you say that about?