Gunstar Heroes [Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Longplay]

Intro：00:00
The Ancient Ruins: 04:17
The Underground Mine: 11:30
Black's Fortress: 19:20
The Flying Battleship: 27:40
Highway Battle: 32:36
Shoot-em Up Stage: 43:01
Central System: 49:57
Boss Rush: 53:58
Golden Silver: 1:02:31
Ending: 1:05:58
Gunstar Heroes[b] is a run and gun video game developed by Treasure and published by Sega. It was Treasure's debut game, originally released for the Sega Genesis in 1993. The game's premise is centered around a pair of characters, the Gunstars, in their efforts to stop an evil empire from recovering four powerful gems. The characters can fire guns and perform a series of acrobatic maneuvers to fight enemies across each stage. There are four weapons in the game which can be combined with one another to create different shot types.
Development on Gunstar Heroes began among a team of staff working at Konami in 1991. Following an unwillingness of Konami to embrace their original game ideas, the team quit in 1992 and formed Treasure to see their project through. The team wanted to develop their game for the Genesis because of the system's powerful Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Sega initially rejected their proposal, but later granted approval after they had been working for Sega for several months on McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (1993). Treasure worked on both games in parallel, and released Gunstar Heroes worldwide as their first game in 1993.
Gunstar Heroes was a critical success, being praised for its frantic action and advanced graphics. It helped establish Treasure's place in the industry, and introduced several design conventions which would become characteristic of their later work such as large bosses and a unique sense of humor. It was re-released several times, including dedicated ports to the Game Gear and Nintendo 3DS, and received a sequel on the Game Boy Advance. In retrospect, it is considered one of the best action games of the 16-bit era, and one of the best video games of all time by several publications.
Gunstar Heroes is a run and gun game played from a side-scrolling perspective similar to Contra.[3] The game can be played in single-player, or cooperatively with a partner. The players take on the role of Gunstar Red and Gunstar Blue as they battle with an evil empire for control over a set of powerful gems.[4] The game features seven stages, of which the first four can be tackled in any order.[4] The stage formats vary; while some feature a typical left-to-right format, others have the player riding in a mine cart along walls, fighting enemies on a helicopter, or playing a board game.[4][5] Completing a level grants the player an extension to their maximum health.[4]
When starting a game, the player can choose either a free or fixed firing stance; the fixed stance immobilizes the character when shooting, while the free stance has the player move in the direction they are firing.[5] The player also has a choice of starting weapon. There are four shot types in the game: a homing shot, lightning blaster, flamethrower, and machine gun. Each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses, and can be swapped with others from item drops in each stage.[6] The weapons can be combined with each other to produce unique shot types. For example, the homing shot can be combined with the machine gun to add a homing effect to the latter, or two lightning shots can be combined to create a more powerful lightning gun.[6] In addition to firing their weapon, the player characters can pull off a series of acrobatic maneuvers including jumping, sliding, and grabbing and throwing enemies.[4]
Although McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure was completed first, Treasure decided to wait and release Gunstar Heroes first because they wanted their debut to be an original game.[8] It was nearly rejected for an American release by Sega of America, only being approved by Mac Senour, the last producer in the reviewing queue after 12 others rejected it. Senour believed the other producers dismissed the game because its small character sprites contrasted with the more popular large sprites at the time. Senour did ask Treasure to change one boss character because it looked too similar to Adolf Hitler.[13]
Gunstar Heroes was released in Japan on September 10, 1993,[14] and released in the West the same month.[7] Sega underestimated demand in Japan where their initial shipment was only 10,000 units.[15] Meanwhile, Sega of America also ordered a small initial print run, as they were not typically confident in games from Sega of Japan.[13] The game was not heavily promoted and spread by word of mouth.[16] GameFan particularly enjoyed the game and published the first English interview with Maegawa.[16] The game shipped in total around 70,000 copies in Japan, and 200,000 overseas.[15] An arcade version was also released for the Sega Mega-Play arcade board.[8]