Tell me about Gunners Heaven..

[Gamereviewgod]

I was just reading an old GameFan and they had an early preview of a PS One game "Gunners Heaven." Has anyone played it? Is it really like Gunstar Heroes? What's it worth? Should I import?

[ManekiNeko]

It's Gunstar Heroes... except different. The graphics are a little crisper and more detailed, but it lacks Gunstar Heroes' personality and inspiration... everything in the game will strike you as kind of cheesy and derivitive. The weapon system is kind of moronic, too... there's a time limit on the weapons you collect, and you've got to keep picking up power ups to lengthen the amount of time you can use them.
Overall, it's a decent game, but nothing compares with the original. Heck, even the Playstation version of Metal Slug is better.

JR

[Kid Fenris]

It's highly derivative of Gunstar Heroes, but the lack of games that imitate Gunstar makes Gunners Heaven a rare and enjoyable thing. Naturally, it looks like a Playstation-enhanced imitation of Gunstar (there's even a mine level and a shooter stage), with more on-screen sprites and flashy effects.

The power-up system is strange, but in some ways, it's an improvement on Gunstar. You can use any of four weapons at any time, and each type of shot has a more powerful version fueled by collecting "P" crystals. It's not hard to stay powered-up, though, and the two selectable characters have different arsenals.

I'd say the gameplay is actually smoother than Metal Slug; you can fire diagonally, and the level design isn't based around one-hit kills or on-the-spot continues. Still, it's a rather hard game. You either learn the bosses' patterns and avoid their attacks precisely or die trying.

So, despite its ever-obvious lack of originality, Gunners Heaven is a rather fun action/platformer, and a look at how a 2-D next-gen version of Contra or Gunstar might have turned out. I'm planning on reviewing it as soon as I find a PSX emulator that can a) take screenshots and b) actually run the game.

It's worth the twenty-five bucks it usually runs on eBay, but I really wish that some American company would just buy Gunners Heaven and bring it here as a budget game. It was released in Europe under the title Rapid Reload back in 1995, so the translation's already in the bag.

[bargora]

It's highly derivative of Hello Kitty's Cube Frenzy, etc.

Your highfalutin' analysis counts for nought if you can't one-credit Skull Fang.

[KJN]

Just a little note. The characters from Gunner's heaven have a cameo in Wild arms 2 where they are the owners of a saloon called... Gunner's heaven.