Gunlord - Dreamcast review

[CMcK]

In the words of The Interceptor "I LIKE IT!". This is an unashamedly old school game putting you in mind of the MD and SNES era. It's bright, colourful and polished. Controls are proper old school responsive you know it's a 60fps game. The Gunlord is quite well animated but not to the extent that it interferes with the controls.
I haven't played deep into the game yet but I'm encouraged by what I've seen so far. The levels are large and spacious designed to encourage a pretty quick pace and lots of exploration.
The intro has the Gunlord escaping court and is utter cheese. I guess this is deliberate. The later intro with the games plot is largely static and looks like the art has remained untouched from the MVS version.
I suppose you have to bear in mind that this is ultimately a Neo•Geo game ported pretty much directly to a much more powerful system. Recommended you take a look if you like old school run and gun games.

[charlesr]

Is it D-pad? i.e. Arcade stick is good for this yeah? Or is there more than 8-way for the directional weapons?

[CMcK]

I've only tried this with the standard DC pad so far. The directional shots are the usual 8 way and the beam weapon swings with your pad.

[briareos_kerensky]

Is it D-pad? i.e. Arcade stick is good for this yeah? Or is there more than 8-way for the directional weapons?

http://gun-lord.com/index.html

It is.

[Strider]

Man this is very average. The controls are very clunky (left trigger to roll, up to stand up) you'll often start of on a spike or other dangerous area, power-ups don't always activate when you walk over them, while the hit box detection is all over the place. I really want to love this because it's a new game on my favourite system, but if it was released on Live Arcade it wouldn't be given the time of day. I love the homage to past games, but as with most of NG: DEV's it's just an average shooter. It's decent, but that's about it.

[charlesr]

I reset the poll to make votes public.

[dvdx2]

yeah, i think NG: DEV are tapping into the whole cult status of the DC to promote their average products

to be fair i havent played this, but it does look as if this type of game is best left in the past and it is such a rip of turrican its libel.

fast striker was average at best too

[mattyr64]

A 7 from me. Really enjoying playing this, though not too keen on the look of the main character (green?). Proper old school style, runs ace, love the music, great graphics overall for me. I also quite like how there are side scrolling shmup stages interspersed. It is very Turrican-like, but this is obviously intentional for Turrican fans. It's not as good as Super Turrican on the NES (my personal fave) but it is good all the same. Does at times feel a bit rough around the edges, as mentioned respawns and collision detection when walking to the edge of platforms can be a bit dodgy, but not a game breaker for me.

Loved Fast Striker here, got it on DC and iPod Touch, not so keen on their other games, DUX (loved it visually) or Last Hope - too much trial and error and learning enemy patterns, thus too damned hard for me.

[briareos_kerensky]

Started Gunlord today. From the comments above I was expecting something much worse, but it was a pleasant ride. Sure, some enemy placements are infuriating and lead to cheap deaths if you don't know where they are but at least it's not as Last Hope (first & last NG: Dev. Team game I played till now), which IMO was borderline unplayable.

Graphics are mixed bag: the scrolling is smooth, there are a lot of details; on the other hand there isn't much variety, sometimes there are too many details and the smallest enemies and/or projectiles tend to get lost. Big sprites are very well done but all enemies (including the Gunlord) could have used some more animation frames.

Controls are adeguate, but it's difficult to aim directly down during jumps and the hold position button doesn't work...but my arcade stick has seen better days and maybe the C button is just a bit too slow in receiving inputs. Directing the snake beam is unintuitive as is exiting ball mode.

The thing that really ticks me off is how bad the manual is: the game has what looks like a rather deep weapon system with multiple standard guns, some have ammo, some have rounds, some can't be swinged around...the manual doesn't make any mention on how it works or any of the indicators on the screen: they are not easy to figure out but it took me a minute or two to locate the health meter, which is tucked in the top right corner of the screen and takes up about 9x3 pixels.

OK, now that I wrote the bads I'm rethinking about it :P But so far there are no crippling flaws, hope it will be like this till the end.

[_SD_]

I really want to love this because it's a new game on my favourite system, but if it was released on Live Arcade it wouldn't be given the time of day. I love the homage to past games, but as with most of NG: DEV's it's just an average shooter. It's decent, but that's about it.

This just about sums up my feeling too. I don't think it helps that NG:DevTeam don't seem to have any real beta-testers for their games, the unfortunate souls that shell out for the MVS releases seem to be doing that job...

yeah, i think NG: DEV are tapping into the whole cult status of the DC to promote their average products

I'm just glad I didn't decide to go for the AES version.