Let’s go into the wayback machine and set it for a dozen years ago…way back then, the must have console was the Sega Genesis and one of the most well reviewed games at the time was a game called Gunstar Heroes. Although the game didn’t sell very well, many game historians get extremely excited whenever they hear a new game from Treasure is released.

Treasure made a name for itself on the Sega Saturn with a game called Radiant Silvergun. The game is now one of the highest priced videogames on eBay, with prices going for $150 and more. Recently the company has made some other games on the GBA with little critical and sales success as well as the well received Ikauraga on the GameCube.

Now that you know a little background on the company, let’s talk about the game. Gunstar Super Heroes is a sequel to the original Genesis game. You see back in 1993, the heroes weren’t super, and now they are. Seriously, you have to read the game’s manual in order to get the backstory, because it’s pretty bizarre. Let’s make it easy: because of the team’s success in the past, the team has now been given a codename promotion to Gunstar Super Heroes. These heroes have been put in action to take care of an Empire’s plan to resurrect a God of Ruin that was destroyed in the original game. Got it?

The Game Boy Advance is the perfect platform for Gunstar Super Heroes – in its most basic form, you can call it a side scrolling 2D shooter – but what a side scrolling shooter it is! A game like this probably wouldn’t work on the Xbox, but here on the GBA, it is a perfect way to pass the time.

Starting up the game, you are given a nice little introduction to the game. All static pictures and scrolling text of course (no voice to speak of). At the start of the game, the only option you have is to select your character: you can choose either Red or Blue. Each character has three kinds of weapons. Type one fires a ‘beam’, type two fires a ball or pulse and the third type is something that you can use to really clean up the screen of enemies. Both characters are well balanced and you can complete the game with either one – there’s no advantage to picking one character over the other.

Each weapon has it’s own supercharge meter—as you use the weapon you fill up the meter. Once the meter is full, you can use the supercharge by hitting the R button twice – which unleashes a very powerful attack based on the weapon you’re using. There is quite a payoff from the supercharge attack and you need to use it wisely – a good strategy is to fill up your supercharge meter on all three weapons and then have them all ready to go for the level boss. Instead of a ‘boss health gauge’ you’re shown a number which is the health of the boss – watching the numbers drop after unleashing one of those supercharge attacks is always a lot of fun.

The gameplay is always challenging and difficult but not in a frustrating way. Some levels seem pretty bizarre, but if you have played a Treasure game before, that’s really nothing new. When your strength hits zero it’s game over. There is an ability to continue but it’s at the beginning of the stage at the amount of health that you had when you first hit the level.

There are some odd gameplay quirks, for example, during the game you can pick up extra health, but when you finish a level your health could be lowered to the ‘standard’ amount for that difficulty level on the next level. This cap doesn’t really seem very fair. There is a maximum amount of health you can have, which is understandable—but to reduce your health arbitrarily seems a little silly.

You also only have one save per character, so if you save with 5 health..well that’s all you get when you continue..good luck, buddy!

The graphics are very Genesis-esque, which means they are fantastic for a Game Boy Advance game. You can’t compare a GBA game to a PSP game obviously, so for the platform, it’s very impressive.