Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - From Start To Finish

This is my "perfect" playthrough of Gunstar Heroes on PS3, as part of SEGA's Vintage Collection that was released via the PSN. i have taken the videos i recorded from all 7 parts and edited them into 1 video. i have tried to remove all the continues and "save scumming" that i did to complete the game. there maybe a couple of instances where health maybe suddenly jumps up or the music may repeat a little, but for the most part you should be able to sit back and watch the game from start to finish. And as a bonus, there's no commentary! so sit back and enjoy the great soundtrack!

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 7 - The Final Part

Part 7 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 is the final part of my playthrough of the game. in part 6, https://youtu.be/RKKnRQQN82A, i ended that video with a try at the final boss rush. in this video i completed that boss rush as well as the final boss battle.

i don't want to go into story spoilers here, you can choose whether or not to watch how the video ends. but what i will say is that i found the boss rush to be easier than some of the other parts of this play through. i was surprised that i managed to beat it, i think, on my third try. i was a little lucky that the game continued from the final boss and that it didn't send me back to the start of the boss rush.

at the end of the game, once it's all finished, i'm kinda left speechless. it's one of the hardest games i've ever completed. it's hard to say why i kept on going, i imagine there's a level of stubbornness behind it. Gunstar Heroes does have some good points, and from a technological standpoint it does some cool things. but it's difficulty is brutal and unbalanced. i can only recommend that if you're going to play Gunstar Heroes as part of the SEGA Vintage Collection on PlayStation 3 then set the difficult to the easiest.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 6 - Completing The Empire's Space Craft

Part 6 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 was interesting as it introduced a new gameplay mechanic. the first part of this video takes place in space. i'm in my space ship and the game is a side scrolling shoot-'em-up. for the most part it's not too bad nor too difficult. but it has one very weird control method. my ship always faces forward, so to change the direction of the guns i have to move the ship in the direction i want the guns to shoot and then fire the guns. i didn't really master it, instead i changed tactics to avoid incoming fire more than destroy them. 

the second part of the video takes place on the ship. it looks like it has crash landed so the action is similar to the previous parts. it's a short sequence before i had to fight 3 new bosses! each one, technologically speaking, looked great and interesting, but they all had their own frustrations. especially the first boss who had an annoying attack where it swept across the bottom of the screen, getting faster and faster, whilst machines attacked from above.

Defeating the 3 bosses is the end of the Space Craft section. so, to end this video i had a quick go at what looks like the final level of the game. it's a boss rush mode with some tricky platforming between each boss. it looks tough!

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 5 - Finally Saving Yellow

Part 5 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 went as well as i thought it would. In part 4, https://youtu.be/OxdokqLjspU, i had already spent around 30 minutes trying to save Yellow, but couldn't. So this videos continues on from that.

From part 4 i have have two save files, one near the boss with low health and one a little bit into the stage with most of my health. i play both of them before settling into trying to complete the stage with more health to make the boss fight easier. The problem with the boss fight is that whilst i had learned the moves he uses, he was unpredictable and there wasn't a pattern to learn. it felt like a combination of luck and unfairness. But at the end, i did defeat him and save Yellow.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 4 - Completing The Strange Fortress

Part 4 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 went much longer than i anticipated. in the other 3 videos, each one has shown my attempts at completing it. I finished The Strange Fortress and thought it was the end of the video, but as i was getting the story about the plot twist, the game started the next stage!

So this video is two halves, the first half is the journey to complete The Strange Fortress, and the second half is my attempt at rescuing Yellow. I do not get to Yellow, so the second half will be continued in Part 5!

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 3 - Completing The Flying Battleship

Part 3 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 went better than part 2, https://youtu.be/Fjbreik3bTU, but it was still difficult. In part 2, it was a boss rush and in part 1, https://youtu.be/dfgBhdeJriE, the bosses were spaced out across the whole level. In this video, The Flying Battleship, it's a combination of both!

So the start wasn't too bad. going up and then across was fine. the first boss was easy, too. then there's a little more platforming before the next two bosses, one after each other. the first of these two bosses wasn't too bad and i managed to defeat him after a couple of tries. But the final boss was much more difficult. He does much more damage, has many more attacks, and can navigate the small stage the battle takes place on faster than i can. So for this video, it took nearly 20 minutes to finally beat him!

There will be a part 4 as i'm interested in what the fourth stage will be like and whether or not it's the final level in the game.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 2 - Completing The Underground Mine

Part 2 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 saw me struggle to complete The Underground Mine. It was very hard to complete what was a small boss rush mode. there were no health pick-ups after each boss either. So this video is mostly me failing again and again but ultimately i did stick at it and beat the stage. Whilst i don't have a rewind feature, i was able to use the save feature to my advantage.

I'll be honest, this felt unfair. Whilst it was interesting to go up against different bosses who act and look differently, it felt like it was designed in such a way that i was meant to fail. Gunstar Heroes was an #arcade game first, so it's designed to take money. In some respects, a modern equivalent would be a Souls Like style game. in those games you learn by failing, as did i in this video.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 1 - Completing The Ancient Ruins

Gunstar Heroes is the new Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. it was a downloadable game that was developed by Backbone Entertainment as part of SEGA's Vintage Collection.

All the other SEGA Mega Drive games i have on PS3 i have either played on the Mega Drive or i played on PS3 when i bought them. Except this one. i don't know why, but i bought but never actually played Gunstar Heroes. I knew the game is highly regarded, but i didn't remember what the story was or what was going to happen when i started the game.

I was greeted by a screen where i could select my character's color and shooting style. the color is easy to understand but, after playing the game, i'm not sure i fully understood what the differences were between them. i chose the one that sounded like i could move and shoot. Then there's a stage select screen, again something i wasn't expecting, where i could chose between 4 stages. i didn't know if there's a "perfect" order to do them in so i just went with the first stage. I was not expecting to be dropped into a gun fight! the action starts fast and hard and it caught me off guard.

The game is fast, the action is frenetic, and the music fits. it was a lot to take in. the game then surprised me by having more than one boss in a stage! the boss battles seem to also act like a checkpoint. i found that out as health is scarce and i died often. thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a limit of continues. But i can't seem to pick up health easily. i have no idea why, but it's something that game hasn't mentioned how to do. in the menus, there are some tips but nothing that acts like a tutorial. the game does throw you in  and it was a tad intimidating. But the experience as a whole has been pleasant enough that i'll do a second video for this game and hopefully more.