Gunhed / Blazing Lazers (PCE SCD) (1989)
Developer: Compile

Review by Faididi and Co.

Stick with Aleste

Story: Average

When evil alien forces are out to destroy Earth, only the Gunhed starfighter and its pilot hero can stop them and save us all.

Gameplay: Below Average

Not to be confused with the manga and anime of a similar name, Compile's Gunhed (Blazing Lazers) plays much like the developer's earlier space shooters, Zanac and Aleste. The hero will fly through several vertically scrolling areas, blasting waves of enemy ships and drones, but this game differs in several regards, not all of them good.

First, the Gunhed's firepower is appreciably more extensive. The weapon pods now change the hero's main guns, and some of them, such as the homing laser cannons, are really awesome. The hero can also pick up auxiliary weapons, like homing missiles or drones, and another new addition is the megabombs, which damage every bad guy on the screen.

The next major change is the two-type life system. In this game, the hero normally restarts from a checkpoint if he gets wasted, and he must grab certain power-ups to convert regular spare lives into special lives that let him resume from where he has died instead. This is an interesting way to increase the difficulty, but one sometimes wishes that the game has stuck with a single consistent rule for using spare lives.

What really makes the game challenging, however, is the problem of the weird lateral shifting effects. Similar to those in Taito's Ashura Blaster, these effects cause objects to slide sharply across the screen whenever the hero flies from side to side, needlessly complicating the evasion of enemy attacks. Even grabbing items becomes frustrating, because their skewed movement patterns are made worse by the unnatural shifting.

Not helping is how the protective shields are lost too easily. The way these shields hang widely off the sides of the ship makes them excessively large targets, and they're quickly worn away before they can deflect the enemy shots that the hero doesn't dodge.

Controls: Average

The Gunhed handles responsively. Moving and attacking are easy to do, and the ship's speed (relative to the screen) can be adjusted at any time. Unfortunately, the crappy lateral shifting effects will always be an obstacle.

Graphics: Excellent

At least Gunhed looks great. The colors are bright, the characters are drawn well with plenty of detail, and several objects can pack the screen with almost no slowdown.

Audio: Above Average

Against expectations, the Gunhed's weaponfire is almost silent compared to that of the Zanac and Aleste starfighters. Luckily, the explosions continue to be loud and plentiful, and the vocal effects that call out the names of the weapons are clear. The music fits the mood of the game nicely.

Overall: Average

Despite being made for a more powerful console, Gunhed doesn't compare all that well to Compile's previous space shooters. The weird lateral shifting effects and the wide-hanging shields make the game more difficult than it should be, and the hero's attacks don't even sound as impressive as their 8-bit predecessors. Fans of Zanac and Aleste hoping for a great 16-bit follow-up will need to keep waiting.