Fast paced, frantic and endlessly fun, Gunstar Heroes is arguably one of the best overall games released for the Mega Drive. The premise is simple: you blast your way through countless enemies in side scrolling shooting action. What perhaps is the biggest standout about GH is the fact that you can shoot in any of eight directions constantly, making movement fluid and engaging multiple enemies possible. GH's boss battles are also well renowned for their uniqueness. Achieved by the use of a large amount of sprites, boss battles require players to use their speed, skills and multi-directional shooting abilities in a variety of different ways. Players also have access to a wide variety of different weapons in Gunstar Heroes. Although you start with a basic gun, this can be upgraded by collecting coloured powerups of the same type, or swapped out for a different gun altogether which also has its own upgrades. For the most fun, you should always play this one for a friend. It gets messy, quickly.
Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.
