Gunstar Heroes - TV Tropes (2025)

Gunstar Heroes - TV Tropes (1)

An exhilarating battle you've never seen before!

"Professor! Green's been here.... He's got a Gem!"
"Uh oh.... That means.... Our only hope is...." points finger to the sky

introGunstar Heroes - TV Tropes (2)

A cooperative Run-and-Gun game released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis by Treasure in 1993. While it wasn't the first game developed by Treasure, it was the first to be released.

Sometime in the future, somewhere not too far from where you live, Gunstars Red and Blue are twins from a family of protectors of the planet Gunstar 9 (G-9), attempting to stop a dictator named Colonel Red from collecting the four famous Mystical Gems in order to reactivate a planet-sucking alien robot known as Golden Silver in a misguided plot to reshape the world.

At least, that's how the original North American release describes it.

That being, you and your (optional, but highly recommended) partner take control of either Red and Blue and traverse several levels of increasing chaos and explosions. What really adds to the run-and-gun nature of it, though, is how the two playable characters differ in action, as well as the clever weapons system. Technically, Red is Free Shot - meaning you can run and gun at the same time with the primary drawback being that it's a bit harder to aim in a specific direction (since... you move when you fire); counter to this, Blue is Fixed Shot, so he can't move and fire but is capable of firing in all 8 directions. This doesn't seem like much of a difference at first, but when you add that certain weapon combos work better for certain types - it allows for a wide variance in playstyles.

Overall the game is best known for its impressive graphic effects, frantic action, great music, and epic boss fights.

A single-player "sequel", Gunstar Super Heroes, was released in 2005 for the GBA, and sets up a new team of heroes (who have the same names as their predecessors) to fight against the Empire Army once again to stop Golden Silver from reviving a second time. It also appears to follow the Japanese Mega Drive storyline more closely, with the names mostly reverted.

The original game was first made available post-Genesis on the PS2 Sega Ages series (with less slowdown) which...alas...is a fine example of No Export for You. However, it is now available for download on Virtual Console, Xbox Live, PSN, iOS and Steam, as well as the 3D Classics line of remasterings on Nintendo 3DS.

Tropes used in this game:

  • A.I. Breaker:
    • Blaster Force gets a big one - there's a safe zone directly under the gun that you can move to, and the boss will fail to shoot you. That you can move through this boss freely does not help, meaning that a player can also simply jump into the boss to avoid its attacks easily.
    • When you face Green one-on-one towards the end of the game, you can pin him into a corner, which makes him throw shuriken immediately once he gets up...shuriken which you can erase with the lightsaber or remote fire weapons. Cue him immediately getting knocked down again and repeating this.
    • Both instances of Orange suffer from this. The first encounter only has one, slow attack if you hang from the helicopter, and you can jump from hanging and immediately throw him out of it, then repeat. The second fight has a phase where he chases you around the boss room, and each time he tries to elbow drop you from above, you can step back, throw him diagonally up while he recovers, then watch him slide to above you and repeat the elbow drop...
  • All There in the Manual: The plot is only properly explained in the manual, although it differs between the Japanese version and the International release. Fortunately, the 3D Classics release of the game goes over both the Japanese story and separate International story.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: The international release had its box art changed to remove the exagerrated angular anime style, albeit while retaining the spirit of the game.
  • Bad Boss: At one point during the Underground Mine, Smash Daisaku uses his own troops as weapons by tossing them out of an exploding train. He's later shown berating and throwing away the "Final Great Soldier" for dancing instead of fighting you.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: This actually happens twice in the game. Once at the halfway point of the game (against the so-called "Final Great Soldier" whose only attack is "Love Love Dancing"), and once at the end.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: Despite the lack of atmosphere, the Imperial soldiers (and Gray) can breathe in outer space just fine with no problems.
  • Beat Them at Their Own Game: The fastest, yet not the safest nor the easiest, way to defeat Orange is by throwing him. Since he's an expert melee fighter, he will wrestle you good if you fail.
  • Big Bad: The Destructor, Golden Silver, wants nothing but the destruction of the world, to the point that even the villain is distraught upon realizing that the being isn't interested in world conquest.
  • Boss Bonanza: The fight against Transforming Mecha Seven Force is this in one boss; every time it is defeated, it switches to a new form. On the harder difficulties, you have to fight all seven forms in rapid succession.
  • Boss Rush: With a twist; you fight against every starter stage boss, but in completely new battles that in most cases don't even resemble the original. The bosses are actually watching your progress on a big board until you reach certain points where they'll move to intercept you.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Golden Silver is defeated, but at the cost of Green sacrificing himself to destroy it. The credits roll immediately after this.
  • Boss Subtitles: Every boss fight begins with a warning, followed by the boss' name and attack names.
  • Brick Joke: One of the mini-bosses in Black's dice maze is Timeron. Upon defeating it, it flies into the sky. Later, during the space shooter stage, Timeron returns, having shot up into the cosmos. Of course, the joke falls flat if you didn't land on Timeron's space in the dice maze.
  • Captain Ersatz:
    • Dr. Brown is based on exactly who you think he is.
    • Pink and her minions are more than slightly reminiscent of the Grandis Gang from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Even the jewel you get for beating them looks like the Blue Water.
  • Charles Atlas Super Power: Orange and Green will both fight you in hand-to-hand combat, the former exhibiting a powerful moveset of wrestling, energy attacks and superpowered flatuence, while the latter uses the supreme agility of the Gunstars and some throwing stars.
  • Chasing Your Tail: Black's rematch has an attack that sweeps the whole playing field.
  • Crosshair Aware: Tiger Force has an attack which manifests a crosshair that tracks the player. The player must avoid it in order to dodge the laser blast that the boss fires shortly afterwards. On harder difficulties, the crosshair will occasionally become larger, signaling that it's going to shoot an explosive projectile.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: The flamethrowers, energy blade and oddly enough, regular homing benefit greatly from close range. The remote-controlled flame is arguably the strongest weapon in the game, but requires you to move it along with your character unless you play Fixed Shot. Your aerial melee attacks can be timed to avoid attacks with their invincibility, and you can throw enemy grenades back at them.
  • Do Not Run with a Gun: One of two modes available when you begin the game.
  • The Dragon: Both Smash Daisaku and Green.
    • Smash Daisaku serves as Colonel Red/General Gray's second-in-command, and the one who commenced the hunt to obtain the gems.
    • Green acts as Colonel Red/General Gray's enforcer; in addition to being assigned a role to find one of the gems — he fights you in space with Seven Force, then again on foot to stop you from reaching Colonel Red/General Gray.
  • Dub Name Change: There are quite a few changes between the initial English release and the subsequent Japanese version that came out the following day. The planet Gunstar 9 was originally Earth, and some side characters had different names, such as Professor White being Doctor Brown (no relation to Back to the Future), and Colonel Red being General Gray. The characters who were named in-game remained the same, however, and the Earth is still mentioned during the intro - the exception being Golden Silver, who has the title of "Destructor" rather than the "God of Ruin" like in the Japanese version. Pink's cohorts Kain (gunner) and Kotaro (pilot) are also unnamed outside the Japanese manual.
  • Dynamic Difficulty: The stages affect how threatening common fodder are; early stages will have mooks that can easily be defeated by simply sliding into them, but as you progress or increase difficulty, they learn to block, shoot more often, grapple and throw bombs.
  • Easter Egg: Timeron in Stage 6 is an Optional Boss you can dispose of in about 2 seconds and move along, but there's a reason the game puts a timer on the screen and taunts, "How long can you last?" Letting it live sends you on a seemingly endless journey through Bullet Hell. But, if by some miracle of endurance you manage to hold out for 100 minutes... this happensGunstar Heroes - TV Tropes (3). Very telling that the programmer's signature is laughing at you.
  • Elite Mooks: The Phantom soldiers; they can take a lot of punishment, engage with powerful slides, jumping kicks and bombs, and chase after you. In most stages, they serve as Mook Lieutenants for standard soldiers. You fight somewhat-downgraded versions en-masse on the empire's battleship. Unlike regular Phantoms, these won't drop any life-ups on death.
  • Evil Costume Switch: During the opening, Green dons a Gunstar uniform just like his allies. While under the Empire's employ (either brainwashed in the localized release, or suffering from amnesia in the original), he switches from the Gunstar uniform to an all green one with a cape.
  • Evolving Attack: At the start of the game, you choose your starter weapon, from Force (Rapid Fire, medium damage), Fire (close range, high damage), Lightning (thin and not rapid, but pierces enemies and walls), and Chaser (homing, low damage unless at close range). You can carry two weapons, and you can replace which two you carry at any time. While you have any two, you'll also create a hybrid weapon from them (or an upgraded version if they are the same weapon).
  • Exploding Barrels: These appear all over Stage Five, and deal damage to surrounding enemies when blown up. Except for one.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Green. He's Brainwashed (has Easy Amnesia in the Japanese release).
  • Fartillery: One of Orange' attacks is called "Break Wind", and unleashes a weaponized burst below him...
  • Fastball Special: You can grab enemies and throw them at other enemies. In 2-play mode, players can throw each other in this way. You can even break the other players fall when they're thrown by an enemy by grabbing and throwing them yourself before they hit the ground.
  • Fisticuffs Boss: Curry and Rice in Black's Dice Maze is fought in a room full of explosives, forcing you to use your melee attacks, including a punch that you can't even use normally.
  • Giant Board Game: Black's Base is designed as a board game, with each space the player's piece lands on acting as a teleporter to a different challenge room, and the boss being located at the end goal. The board itself takes up the stage's entire background, and progression is made by throwing a human-sized die.
  • Grind Boots: Towards the end of Pink's stage, the game has you sliding down the side of a pyramid whilst shooting mooks.
  • High-Altitude Battle: You fight Orange for the first time on a helicopter that's constantly tilting as you fight. You can throw him out of the helicopter, but it's not very effective, dealing low damage and letting him attack you on the way back up. You should instead, illogically, throw him onto the helicopter itself for massive damage.
  • High-Speed Battle: Green's stage takes place entirely while riding specially modified mining carts.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Some enemies throw bombs that explode on impact. If you time it well, you can catch the bomb and throw it back.
  • Hold the Line: Before fighting Pink in a rematch, her flunkies Kain and Kotaro will show up in a Mini-Mecha and attack you. Once the mech's destroyed, Kain will stand his ground and fight on-foot using the mech's severed (but still functional) gatling gun.
  • Incredibly Durable Enemies: Pink's stage features normal-looking soldiers that slide down the pyramid after you, but take damage comparable to a Phantom unless you throw them away.
  • Invincible Minor Minion: In stage five, there is one mook that hides under a barrel and runs away. The odd thing is that not only is this the only enemy you can't kill, but also the only barrel you can't blow up.
  • Irony: "I NEVER DIE!" Spoken by Smash Daisaku before he gets carried away. He is never seen again.
  • Japanese Ranguage: Suffers from this in the English localization, namely the attack "Swap Leg" being translated as "Swap 'Reg". This translation is retained even in the 3DS port.
  • Laser Blade: Lightning + Fire = a short-ranged laser beam that can be wielded like a lightsaber. It can even parry most projectiles.
  • Lift of Doom: Inverted, literally. During the final stage, when you reach the Black Fly and hop on the platform, it starts moving down.
  • Made of Explodium: All enemies go down on a fiery explosion when you kill them. This includes a plant, a giant caterpillar and a giant gel.
  • Mineral MacGuffin: The Gems. The Empire's aim is to find all four of them to activate Golden Silver and rule the world under their thumb.
  • More Dakka: Some of your weapons include a massive rapid gun, a homing version thereof, or explosive rounds. Kain fights you in the final stage by wielding a mech gun that shoots bursts, and you encounter two soldiers in specialized vehicles in Black's stage that have huge guns mounted; they can damage other enemies with them.
  • No-Sell:
    • Attempting to throw Smash Daisaku while he flies around will deal zero damage and make him respond with a tough counterattack where he rams into you at mach speed.
    • Golden Silver is completely invulnerable, no attacks affect him, and melee and throws only knock him down. Even after his defeat, he escapes unscathed, requiring Green's Heroic Sacrifice (via his Seven Force) to destroy him for good.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: Minion Soldier, one of the Dice Palace bosses in Black's stage. He's 17 'pixels' tall and both gives and takes plenty of punishment.
  • Puzzle Boss: During the final boss fight, Golden Silver himself is invincible and can only be knocked down briefly to buy time. You need to go for the four Mystical Gems themselves.
  • Recurring Boss: You fight Smash Daisaku no less than four times. You also fight Green three times, the first two of which are battles against Seven Force.

    Smash Daisaku: "I NEVER DIE!"

  • Reflecting Laser: Tiger Force shoots a laser from its tail that ricochets off walls. Vortex Base pulls this trick on you as well, indicating the path of reflection before releasing the laser.
  • Roaring Rampage of Rescue: In Stage 5, the villains have taken Yellow hostage, and you must fight through an entire base to rescue her. Notably, this is the only stage where a specific text is displayed upon starting the mission.

    DESTROY THEM ALL!!

  • Roll-and-Move: The Dice Palace immediately before the boss fight with Black. There's a game board hovering in the air, and a giant die on the floor that you roll by throwing it. Depending on which space you land on, you get transported into a short level, a miniboss fight, a bonus room full of powerups... or the second-to-last space that sends you back to the beginning of the board. Reaching the last space lets you proceed to the boss fight against Black himself... who also abides by Roll-and-Move rules. He's in a giant mecha, and before every attack he rolls a die, then walks the number of steps he just rolled.
  • Sequential Boss: As its name suggests, Green's Seven Force can transform into seven different battle forms. The number of Forces the player has to defeat varies depending on the chosen difficulty, though all 7 must be fought in sequence when playing on Hard or Expert.
  • Skippable Boss: Technically speaking, you don't have to fight all of the bosses in Black's maze. Whether or not you do is completely up to the computer, though.
  • Some Dexterity Required: The Gunstars have some moves that fit this bill, either from their existence not being made clear to begin with, or from being difficult to perform in real-time gameplay.
    • The powerslide (half circle forward, shoot) is far stronger than a regular slide and has more range and duration.
    • Blocking (hold jump, shoot on the ground, or press both at once) reduces all incoming damage and removes knockdowns.
    • The mere knowledge that enemy bombs are throwable is already valuable, actually doing it can be risky, and actually hitting an enemy with the bomb is rarer yet.
    • Holding up when you jump makes you jump higher, which can be surprisingly useful.
    • Conversely, not holding up while you hang from a platform lets you jump instead of climbing up, notably usable to trivialize the Orange fight.
  • Strong Flesh, Weak Steel: The game encourages melee combat against humanoid enemies - throwing them deals far greater damage than anything else you could do.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: All enemies inexplicably explode when defeated, even if they are just regular humans. If something isn't blowing up on screen at any given moment, then you're either dead or doing it wrong.
  • Terrible Trio: Pink and her flunkies Kain and Kotaro. Their physiques, shades, and token vehicle named after the leader are a rather obvious Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
  • Theme Naming: All of the major characters except the recurring Smash Daisaku are named after colors.
  • Transforming Mecha: The Seven Force, it is an adaptable transforming mech suited for any combat situation, and is Green's primary method of fighting (either during his time as a Gunstar or as an Imperial enforcer).
  • The Unfought: General Red/Gray is defeated by a surprise attack from the Gems.
  • Wall Jump: The playable characters can jump away from walls or the screen's edges to reach higher locations. This move also doubles as a damaging melee attack.
  • The War Sequence: Stage 5 has no complex platforming segments, simply requiring the player to keep going forward while defeating waves upon waves of Mooks.
  • Zero-Effort Boss: Melon Bread. There's absolutely nothing it can do to hurt you. The only way you can actually get hurt is by purposefully waiting for it to do a single, weak attack. Otherwise, all it does is sniff at you and dance around on the top of the screen.
Gunstar Heroes - TV Tropes (2025)
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