Ani's DB Analysis Blogs: Red, the gunwielding super-warrior of Gunstar Heroes

Just a few things before we start…

Well, here I go again back on my bs, this time with a game I only recently played but that has easily stood with me as probably one of my favorite run n gun out there… a little gem of a time long gone.

tackling Gunstar Heroes is a relatively easy task, there is not a whole lot of material to go through… First of all there are 2 games (3 if we use the Game Gear which its technically a port but its different enough in some areas to guarantee analysis), the second is a direct sequel, but due to story reasons and the character at hand we are mostly focusing on the first title (tho the second game is pretty useful in terms of other stuff we will get into later), I’m also using all the official manuals for both in english and japanese (and other languages) for the sake of additional information, double checking and story related stuff.

Here’s the important bit tho, the original translation of Gunstar Heroes is quite fucking bad in terms of explaining the story, and they do not really fit with the events of the second… The true “lore” perse, and canonical the events that really take place are heavily implied to be the ones of the Japanese version, which is why I will be sticking to the original story instead of the European and North American translation… aside from that we are good to go.

Also, unrelated but please for the love of everything that is holy go play these games, they may be short but super duper fun and replayable, truly hidden treasures of their time that still hold up. Very influential too, you can thank this game for Cuphead ever existing.

 

 

 

Background

 

Long… long ago, in another world much different than ours, the Earth found itself in unspeakable danger, an evil and technologically-advanced organization seeked to put the world under their iron grip. In their desire for power they created a machine and fueled it by using four mysterious gems as an energy source, the ending result was an automaton so powerful that it was simply referred to “The God of Ruin” (or Golden Silver). Using the moon as their base of operation, this so-called god destroyed city after city, leaving nothing on its wake… This would have been the end of the planet, and it nearly was! If it wasn’t for a special group of people.
 

You see on Earth there lived a squadron of strong warriors, simply referred to as “The Gunstars” (going by the names Red, Blue, Green and Yellow) a quartet of incredible soldiers that, rightfully pissed off at this whole “earth destruction” thing, took it upon themselves to bring down this organization and their super robot… And they actually succeeded! Barely being able to defeat the forces of this malevolent machine and sealing its body in the very moon it had lived in. Recovering and hiding the gems it had powered it across the globe in the hopes such a calamity would never come to be again, later entering in a deep cryogenic sleep in the case they were needed once again. (well except for Green, he got a bad case of the amnesia).

Centuries passed by, the planet healed, new races and lifeforms came to grow and develop on the earth, but even amongst them something stood the test of time… A legend that said: “Revive the god that sleeps on the Moon, and he will guide the righteous to Utopia”. Enamored by this legend, a particular group rose to see what it was all about, those of the “Empire” lead by an almost tyrannical dictator by the name of General Gray, they took it upon themselves to find a way to revive this so call God, legitimately believing it would lead them to paradise, sending a gigantic battleship called the Ark to the moon, and initiating expeditions to mine for the gems that once powered the monstrous machine.

It’s in one of these mining expeditions that a scientist and doctor (called Dr. Brown what a shocker) found the slumbering Gunstars on their cryogenic chambers... Waking them up and doing some catchup, the warriors learned of the Empire’s plan, and naturally pretty distraught, told Brown that they had to stop them before it was too late, explaining him of the potential danger. Brown, ever the kind doctor, decided to do the right thing, he betrayed the empire and joined the Gunstars Red, Blue and Yellow in their quest to stop them, gather the gems, and put an end to Golden Silver once and for all.

 

 

Abilities 

Hand to Hand skills. 

 

Tho never explicitly told if they were ever trained or acquainted in martial arts, it's pretty clear little ‘ol Gunstar Red here isn’t afraid to throw a punch if needed be, they have proven themselves to be quite agile, being able to wall-jump and hang from various ceilings and materials with no issue. Aside from that, Red has a variety of moves he can use to take care of opponents and even maneuver around the battlefield, these include:

Slide: it's basically what it sounds, a simple slide attack that can be used to go through narrow passages and destroy small objects/enemies.

Throw: The Gunstars have a habit of launching various objects, and let me tell you they have one hell of a throwing arm.They can throw people several feat in the air, even ones that are fully armored, hell even robots.

Body Slam: When in the air, Red can channel his inner Luchador and perform a bodyslam, a pretty useful move to take care of loads of enemies, and also speedrun.

Flying-Kick: a variation of the boy slam, but as the name implies it's a kick, it pretty much serves the same purpose. 

Drop-Kick: Now the name might be a bit misleading, as it is more of a foot-dive than a drop kick, still, it is a pretty useful attack for defeating enemies while airborne.

 

 

Equipment 

Weapons 

Now, now... Red wouldn’t be called a GUNstar if he didn’t have some nifty firepower on his side right? Tho never given a specific name and only referred to “the weapon” (as far as I know anyway) it is a pretty incredible piece of weaponry, being able to hold 2 weapons at a time and change between them at a moments notice, these are the 4 main types initially available.

Force: a series of very tiny energy spheres that are shot rapid-fire in a straight line, of the weapons by itself is one of the strongest.

Lightning: A series of continuous blue beams that go in a straight line and deal damage, think of it like stormtrooper blasters.

Chaser: A series of arrow-like projectiles that will, as the name implies, give chase to the enemies in the vicinity.

Fire: by itself, this weapon works close to a regular flamethrower, a short ranged weapon that deals massive damage when up-close.

 

Weapon combinations

Now, you recall how Red’s weapon can hold 2 types of element at a time right? Well, if he decides too he can actually merge the effects of two weapon types to create an entirely unique beam, each with its own effects and method of attack giving a total of 14 (including the previous 4 for a total of 16) different beams, these are:

Force + Force: “Double Fireball”: the energy spheres become double the size as the regular one, and deal pretty hefty damage, however they do not home in on enemies.

Force + Lightning: “Rapid-Fire Lightning”: usually referred to as a “squirt-gun” it's an even more rapid-fire version of the regular lighting, the advantage that this version has over others its that the shots can be aimed more precisely, like in a diagonal.

Force + Chaser: “Chaser Force Beam”: A series of sphere-like energy proyectiles that go in a straight line, when close to an enemy they will home in and deal damage that way.

Force + Fire: “Exploding Fireball”: a single energy ball that when collides with an enemy or wall will explode into a ball of flame.

Fire + Fire: “Ultra Flamethrower”: as the name implies this is an ever stronger version of the flamethrower, it reaches further and deals more damage.

Fire + Lighting: “Lightning Saber”: A short ranged, lightsword-like beam, it can deal strong damage very fast and even nullify smaller projectiles, its main weakness is its poor range.

Fire + Chaser: “Chaser Fireball”: A big ball of fire that can be manually controlled by Red, he can only have one on screen but it dishes out huge damage.

Chaser + Chaser: “Star Chaser”: turns the little arrow bullets into pretty sizable star shaped projectiles, that are shot even faster than before, homing in on enemies and other objects.

Chaser + Lightning: “Chaser Lightning”: A singular beam of energy that targets an enemy and deals continuous damage as long as the fire button is held, when it kills one enemy it will move on to the nearest. It's easily the most broken weapon in the game.

Lightning + Lightning: “Mega-Bolt”: a continuous straightforward beam of pure lighting that deals moderate damage but has basically fullscreen range in a straight line.

 

 

Mining Cart 

Exclusive to the Genesis version, it’s a modified vehicle courtesy of Dr. Brown, it was originally intended (as the name implies) to serve in mining and underground investigation. It's a fairly interesting piece of machinery alright, able to stick to rails and traverse through them at high speeds either horizontally or vertically. However its most notorious ability is that it's able to...say… “switch” orientation in a flash, able to somehow stick itself into the ceiling of a place (granted it has a rail to stick on).  

Hovercraft

Exclusive to the Game Gear port but still worth mentioning, it's basically what it sounds, a jetpack-like contraption that appears to resemble some sort of mini-helicopter. Gunstar Red can use it to fly around.

 

Spaceship 

An old spaceship that was apparently dug out by Dr. Brown in one of his expeditions. It was piloted by the Gunstar heroes in their adventure as a way to give chase to the Ark and later try and destroy Golden Silver. It comes equipped with a pair of boosters that can rocket it across space at incredible speeds, in fact it can use them to dodge out of the way in what Dr.Brown calls "Warping through space". A pair of cannons that can utilize all of the gunstars weapons (and all of their combinations too). And in 2-player mode it can even have a mini satellite attached to it, it basically orbits around the main spaceship to provide backup in the form of extra firepower… it can even blck minor projectiles.  (tho the latter only works if there is the 2, so for this it wouldn't do much).

Feats

(Sorry I had to stick Melon Bread somewhere)

 

 

Strength

• More than strong enough to throw around various opponents, like other Gunstars, armored soldiers, huge buff men, a dice the size of his body, and even entire robots like Golden Silver.
• Can kick crates into dust. (and even shoot steel ones into exploding).
• Shoots a plant so hard it literally just explodes.
  
• Same as above but this time with a huge caterpillar.
• Weaponry strong enough to destroy a small house.
• Destroying a huge robot (he does this a lot 1, 2, 3, 4) 
• Blowing up a locomotive (or at least damaging it to the point of malfunction).
• Punches a rock golem into a corner. (Hell he can even throw it like a ragdoll).
• The spaceship's weapons are strong enough to disperse and move asteroids (since the ship uses the same weapons as Red its likely they are comparable).

 

Speed

• It's constantly amidst a barrage of gunfire, laser beams and all manner of weapons.
• Some of these lasers-like attacks even bounce around, and go in lines, implying some semblance of similarity to light. (these are Seven Force and Vortex Base”).
• While on foot, able to run on par with Green’s Seven Force.
  
• For reference the thing is fast enough to travel to space.
• The spaceship is able to fly from the earth to the moon in an approximate time span of 7 to 10 minutes. (using the approximate time it takes for the auto-scroller level to be completed anyway).
• Since the thing has to be piloted while dodging enemy fire and defeating enemies its likely this applies to reactions as well.
• The minecart is fast enough to outrun an explosion.
• The minecart is also fast enough to catch up to a small train.
• Dodging bullets from a giant robot gun.
• Reacting to bootleg M.Bison over here, who’s some attack involve flying with a jetpack.
• Can react to minigun fire from this robot (either to dodge it or block it), with possible in tandem movement when held by one one Pink's lackeys.

 

Dura 

• Survive being on top of an exploding plane and then subsequent fall.
• Can hate hits from lasers, soldiers, robots, several types of machines and much much more and still keep on going.
• Surives a a clash landing on the moon (while inside the spaceship however). 
• Is in the vicinity of this robots blowing up.
• Is within the vicinity of this reactor exploding.
• Survives being near this explotion.
• The ship survives a blast from Golven Silver (the final boss).

Scaling

Being the protagonist of his own series (or at least the first one), Red pretty much scales to every main antagonist he defeats and side-characters in the series (not that there are many anyway). It is important to specify that even if the characters from the second game, Gunstar Super Heroes, aren’t the same as the first (excluding some that might be the same-ish) All in all I find no reason to believe that Red shouldn’t be able to do or wouldn’t be able to take down some of the machines in the sequel, the Gunstars from both games have performed similar feats and hold similar powersets. So because of this and for the sake of completion I will be taking into account both games.

 

Note: for the record I will be refering to the og Gunstar Heroes as "GH" and the sequel as "GSH" so that there is no confusion. 

• Golden Silver: He is the main antagonist of both entries, the first Gunstars in lore did defeat him twice, once to seal his body and the second one where they destroyed the gems that powered it, the Golden Silver from the sequel is pretty much the same sans some differences story wise (basicaly he is like the avatar of man-kind or some shit like that), but all in all it Red should reasonably scale.
• Golden Silver making a huge explosion as previously stated.  (GH)
• The resulting detonation upon his destruction was so powerful it divided the moon into 4 smaller moons. (this is backed up the GBA manual stating it as such). (GSH).
• In GSH Golden Silver was about to kamikaze himself into Earth, destroying it (he's even stated to have the power to do so).
• He was stated by the same gems to be one of the few things that could stand up to "Outside Force" (basicaly an evil extra-dimentional energy) that threatened several Earths from other dimentions. (Here they red gem says it again). (GSH)
• Flying from its base on a fake moon to near Earth in just a few seconds. (the ship of the GSH keeps up with him too)

• Gunstar Super Red and Blue: The protagonists of the sequel (yes they are named the same).
• Reacting and intercepting missiles in mid-flght combat. (GSH)
• Being nearby this big robot exploding. (GSH)
• Blowing up a big machine. (GSH)
• Surviving yet another explosion from another robot. (GSH)

• Other bosses in the series: 
• Pink and her goons surviving their robot exploding on them and being blasted off into the distance. (Epilepsy warning on this clip in particular). [GH]
• Later the same Pink gets blown up by her robot so hard she is sent flying far deep into space. (GH)
• Mr. Black (yes...really...) surviving his robot exploding on him. (GH)
• The Seven Force was more than likely able to survive the suicidal attack from the original Gunstar Green when it attacked Golden Silver (We know this to be the case because of the sequel, there their own Gunstar Green pilots it and its implied to be a “dug up relic” while also possessing most of the same attacks and forms as the original, its reasonable to believe that they are the same. Since both present and future Gunstars were able to defeat (multiple times too) it it means the scaling is probably applicable. 
• This probably applies to the spaceship as well, as it was able to defeat the Seven Force as well. (GH)
• The OG captian Orange moving fast enough to leave a blur. (GH)
• Captain Orange running so fast he leaves fire on the ground. (GSH)
• This goofy looking robot makes an explosion so large it forms a mushroom cloud. (GSH)
• Seven Force surviving exploding on him. (GSH)

• Misc:
• General Gray jumping several hundred meters in all the way into the"Ark" in just a few seconds. (GH)
  
• The gems were able to protect GSH Green from this gigantic explosion. (GSH)

Weaknesses

Despite being pretty strong and capable soldiers, the Gunstars and thus Red aren't precicely invulnerable, they are still just mortal, and as such enough damage will put him down for good. Also, despite the incredible versatility his weapons bestow he needs to manually find and change the corresponding types of energy required for the combinations, this means that he is limited to what he has on hand. Also even tho his vehicles are pretty useful, specially the spaceship, they do not guarante victory outright, and sometimes only work on specific scenarios (like in railways).

 

 

Just before we go… 

First, I would like to apologize for the lack of any meaningful updates, life has been a bit of  a hasstle and I wanted to take a very lengthy vacation before entering university again, I wanted to keep the tradition of doing more "cult classics" and I swear to god I'll do something that more people know for the next one, I have a few blogs planned, but those will take me some time. First tho I would like to source all the YT channels I saw vieos from for the sake of these blog's clips, which are: Amy Rose Longplays. SaiyanSonic91, Flexision, Billy Deerhead, World of Longplays, Longplays Land and TASvideosChannel. (check them out on their Youtube channels), other pages I used for the sake of finding some translations and Manuals where SegaRetro.org and Replacementdocs.com

Next to that, as always I would like to thank my friends for even if not being directly involved they always lend their support, and finally, all of you, the readers for taking your time reading these, they would be nothing without any of you... With that said, I wish you all a beautiful day and stay safe out there... We will see hopefully soon on another blog.