Gun Lord Review: Retro Dreamcast Goodness

Platform: Dreamcast
Developer: NG:DEV
Release: Mid 2012
Region: All (Region-Free)
Website: Click Here

Would you believe me if I told you that Dreamcast games are still being made to this day? In fact a lot of older retro consoles tend to get new physical retail releases all the time by dedicated fans and developers. Gun Lord is just one example for the Dreamcast. This action platformer from Europe, which only just saw a release mid 2012, is another great reason to be a retro game collector and lover.

This game main focus is exploring nine very large stages on foot or in your ship with an emphasis on platforming and 2D side scrolling shooting. When I say the land stages are large, I do mean very large. Disregarding the difficulty, each stage will take you a while to get to the end. The high difficulty just helps to make sure your experience is well worth it. Being a 2D shooter, you have access to a good bit of different weapons and powers. Your main weapon will change depending on what type of time limited power ups you happen to get. Some of those power-ups are quite powerful and fun to fire. You also have a morth ball mode that allows you to destroy enemies and you roll and fire bombs at your feet, similar to Samus in Metroid in a sense. You also have a few other limited powerful attacks to use to help you out in tense situations as well in case you need them. At the end of each stage comes a huge boss battle. Be sure to be ready for these, as these guys don’t go down easy.

There are some very high quality 16-bit hand-drawn graphics within this game. Nearly everything about it is drawn in a wonderful and vivid fashion. Not only does the game look good, it looks great in motion. All the sprites have amazing animations associated with them. It’s clear the developers of this game went all out in making this game stand out. The end stage bosses are at no exceptions when it comes to looking good, each of these large bosses are amazing to look at. They even look great when you are destroying them.

Like the graphics, the sounds and background music for the stages are a pleasure to listen to. Each stage has several different background music associated with it, depending on the area. Like I mentioned before, each of the stages are large and have a different feel to them, even in each stage. The sound effects and background music do a great job of absorbing you into the action. I have noticed one small issue with the background music and the Dreamcast game however. If you end up pausing the game and leaving it paused for over five minutes the background music will not come back unless you go back to the main menu or you advance to the next stage. This is rather unfortunate as the music help make the stages come to live.

If you have Dreamcast, I highly recommend Gun Lord. Even if you don’t have a Dreamcast, given the price for the system, I still would recommend this game. This game with its nine huge stages and intense battles will last you a very long while. The game even allows you to enter your high scores through their website. So be sure to check out this game before it becomes too late.

Rating: 8.5/10

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