Approximate Release Date: November 27, 1992
Genre: Action
Developer: Bits Studio
Publisher: Irem
GunForce tries to be Contra-but-with-vehicles. It’s too bad that Contra III: The Alien Wars beat it to the punch.
Contra III is superior to GunForce in every way. Every single possible way. It’s incredible how bland and archaic GunForce looks despite coming out over a year later. The game runs really slow at the best of times but becomes even slower and choppier as more stuff appears on-screen. The screen doesn’t even scroll as quickly as you can run. I spent a lot of time waiting for the game to catch up with me.
You know the vehicles I mentioned before? They range from helicopters to trolleys to pontoon boats, and they usually have a machine gun of some sort mounted on them. The vehicles are worth using but feel low effort. The helicopter is used for about 30 seconds until you reach an invisible wall, for example. GunForce‘s power-ups have a similar problem. The auto rifle, laser, rocket launcher, and flamethrower weapons are certainly all better than the default gun, yet they’re boring because they behave the same as in any other game of this type.
Also, GunForce is easy. And short. I almost beat the game while recording the video for this post! Five levels isn’t a lot for a game of this type, and it would be hard not to see the end if you have a buddy playing with you.
I don’t know how I feel about GunForce. The lack of new ideas and myriad technical problems means the game has a “why does this even bother existing” feeling throughout. But the game straddles the line between being too easy and being boring because of being too easy. I didn’t not enjoy the time I spent with GunForce, and any annoyances I had weren’t glaring enough to make me turn off the game because of them.
Tomorrow: The fantastic Quintet Super Nintendo action RPG trilogy begins tomorrow with Soul Blazer!
