GOTD 4/28/2016: Gunblade NY (Wii)
Gunblade NY is a Sega light gun shooter first released in arcades 20 years ago in 1996. There was originally a planned port to the Sega Saturn, which housed several excellent gun ports, which was scrapped for various reasons. The arcade game would have several conversion kits such as LA Machineguns and Terminator... 3, I think? Anyway, it was kind of left to that kind of obscurity unported arcade games get, where a handful of people have great memories of them, whereas everyone else just politely smiles and nods, maybe checking them out on MAME or something later. Well, completely out of nowhere, Sega decided to port this one to Nintendo's Wii in 2007, packaging it with the also awesome LA Machineguns. When I saw it, it felt like one of those releases that was just for me!
The arcade cabinet for Gunblade NY was huge, having a large platform out in front of a big CRT monitor with 2 mounted turrets instead of handheld light guns. These were massive, and had great force feedback and sound effects to go along with the fast action swooping around, simulating gunning from a helicopter. Each player had an on-screen cursor, mowing down terrorists and robots throughout New York. The Wii Zapper does a pretty reasonable job for a home conversion in allowing force feedback and letting players feel like they're manning a turret. It lacks the weight of the mounted arcade gun, but for a chance to play it at home finally, it's an absolutely serviceable solution.
This is a damn near perfect arcade conversion, with all of the bright colors, speed, and accuracy of Sega's big machine. There are a few additions for this version, such as com chatter coming through the Wiimote speaker and unlockable extra weapons with ranks gained from repeated plays and high scores. There's also a neat score attack remix mode to try and rack up big scores to open new challenges. The fact that it's packaged with the arguably better LA Machineguns makes this one a no-brainer for light gun fans, and until very recently it was super cheap, though it seems to be on the rise.
I played the hell out of the arcade game in my late teens and early 20s at my favorite pizza place, Pantera's Pizza, usually with my buddy Ben while waiting for our pizza. I love Sega light gun games, but this cabinet is so big, I'd have to completely dismantle one to get it into my basement, where I can only fit a few more cabinets as is, so this Wii compilation was a real gift for me.
Played this one? Any arcade memories?
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