Oh man, Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis. There is so much to say about this game.

This was the first game to come from Treasure, a studio made of former Konami employees, and it is a classic. Gunstar Heroes is a run and gun style game on the planet Gunstar-9. The four mystical gems have been stolen by the vicious dictator Smash Daisaku, who has turned the world’s robots evil and kidnapped as well as taken control of Gunstar Green, the brother of Red and Blue. It is up to Gunstar’s Red and Blue, with the support of Gunstar Yellow and Professor Brown, to save the planet. The whole game is just sensory overload, with tons of explosions and enemies, and that’s what makes it so great.

At the start of the game, the player is given the option of level difficulty and type of control. The option of either fixed-shot or free-shot are similar; fixed shot makes the player stop whenever they shoot, but allows them to shoot in more directions.

Free-shot is the basic run and gun style, but it limits the directions players can shoot. As for difficulty, easy and normal are pretty similar, and are the default option for the game. Hard and expert, however, bumps up the level of difficulty substantially. Bosses differ and stages become much harder to complete. It’s safe to say that this is one of the most challenging games made, and that makes it all the more fun.

Before the start of the game, players are also given the choice of a gun type: lightening, chaser, flame and force. The best thing about the different gun types is that two can be equipped at once for different combo shots. A lot of the gun combos range from powerful to just game breaking, which can help if a player is doing a single player run of the game.

Though it is fun to play the game alone, the game is best known as a great co-op game. Having an extra helper can make the game a tad easier, but both players health decrease faster in co-op so as to keep the challenge. The PSN and Xbox live ports of the game support multiplayer online, yet the ability to revive a fallen teammate in the original and Wii version of the game has been disabled for those versions. There is a version on the iPhone as well, but that doesn’t support two players.

Gunstar has been out for just about 19 years, and it has not lost its charm. It is still one of the best games out there. Amazing soundtrack, visuals and solid controls.