Gun Frontier (video game)
Gun Frontier | ||
---|---|---|
Composer(s) Hidetoshi Fukumori (Uncredited) | | |
Platform(s) | Arcade, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch | |
Release | 1990 | |
Genre(s) | Vertically scrolling shooter | |
Mode(s) | ||
Taito F2 System |
Gun Frontier
Conceived by Takatsuna Senba during his time working at Taito, which served as his first original work under the role of both
Gun Frontier has been met with mixed critical reception from
Gameplay
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b3/ARC_Gun_Frontier.png/220px-ARC_Gun_Frontier.png)
Gun Frontier is a space Western-themed vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game. Players assume the role of planetary settlers who formed part in the colonization team of planet Gloria taking control of revolver-shaped fighter aircraft through six stages, in a last-ditch effort to defeat the Wild Lizards and free their surviving people from enslavement by the space pirates.[1][2][3][4] Players start with dual machine guns which are strengthened and multiplied by upgrades that come in the form of US dimes taken from buffalo-shaped enemies and every five dimes empowers the aircraft's firepower. Players also start with a set number of bombs that can be upgraded to deal further destruction against enemies and scenery by collecting gold bars from destroyed ground forces and once a player accumulates 25 bombs, they are granted access to the Bomber Max, the strongest of the player's bombs.[1]
The direction of the blast radius of the player's bombs correspond to their movement. If the player moves their plane to the lower right of the screen and launches their bombs, then the direction the bomb will travel in the opposite direction of the aircraft's movement. This feature can only be used however when a player has a large bomb count as only having one or two bombs will result in a small directionless explosion and like most bombs found in other shoot 'em ups released at the time, the bombs also work as a shield against incoming enemy fire. Bombing on determined locations is also crucial for reaching high-scores to obtain extra lives, as certain setpieces in some stages hosts a bonus secret within their scenery, as well as destroying enemies on certain spots.[5]
A recovery system after using a credit during the continue screen is used, as players can pick up a spinning coin with two different sides: a silver side and a gold side. If the player collects the coin on its silver side, then the player merely gains another coin for their guns. However, if the player collects the coin on its gold side, then the player's firepower and bomb supply will be maximized to their full power.[4] The game also uses a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying. The title also employs an anti-autofire mechanism where the difficulty will max out by the second stage if the player is sustaining too fast of a fire rate.[4] Getting hit by enemy fire will result in losing a live, as well as a penalty of decreasing the aircraft's weapon to one level and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the player inserts more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing.
Plot
Gun Frontier takes place in a futuristic sci-fi setting during the 22nd century, where
Development
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Gun_Frontier_art_design.jpg)
The creation of Gun Frontier was helmed by Takatsuna Senba, a former
Members of the Gun Frontier development team, which was originally a small number of people, also worked previously on other Taito titles such as
Senba also played a part in Gun Frontier's development as an
Despite suffering many setbacks, the game managed to meet the deadline and was eventually launched to the market.[10] After its release, Senba recounted about the creation process of the project in a 1991 interview with Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine where he revealed additional development information as well as various game ideas that were implemented.[5] He stated that the reason for adding an anti-autofire mechanism was due to the programmers' thought of how to make a project with adjustable difficulty on the fly, while also revealing the difficulty could also be increased by the number of enemies destroyed and other factors.[5] He also revealed that the team implemented bonus secrets in some of the stages as an internal response from two Taito employees who managed to one-credit clear the game for longevity reasons before launch.[5] The title is dedicated to F2 System hardware engineer Katsujiro Fujimoto, who died during development in a traffic accident.[8][10]
Unlike other Taito productions and despite both
Release
Gun Frontier was initially only launched for the arcades by Taito in 1990 across Japan, making an appearance on some
Reception
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Famitsu | (Saturn) 53%[17] |
M! Games | (Saturn) 29%[18] |
Zero | (Arcade) ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
PlayStation Magazine (JP) | (Saturn) 18.8/30[20] |
Saturn Fan | (SS) 5.8/10[21] |
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) | (Saturn) 5.66 / 10[22] |
Publication | Award |
---|---|
Gamest Mook (1998) | Grand Prize 7th, Best Shooting Award 5th, Best Production Award 5th, Best Graphic Award 3rd, Best VGM Award 8th, Annual Hit Game 34th (Arcade)[23] |
Gun Frontier has been met with mixed critical reception from reviewers since its initial release in arcades and later on Saturn as part of volume 2 from the Arcade Gears series.[14][24] In Japan, Game Machine listed the game on their February 15, 1991 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month.[25] In the April 1991 issue of Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine, the game was ranked on the number fifteen spot in popularity.[26] In a 2010 interview, composer Manabu Namiki regarded Gun Frontier as one of the shoot 'em up games he enjoys the most.[27]
Legacy
After the initial release of Gun Frontier in arcades, Senba and some members in the development team would later go on to create a horizontally scrolling shooter for Taito titled Metal Black, which was produced under the internal working title "Project Gun Frontier 2" but its actual connection to the original entry is very loose at best. The science fiction third-person shooter PlayStation game Cosmo Warrior Zero features a fictional planet that bears a resemblance to Gloria as its main setting. In the 2010 self-published book by Cave, which chronicled their past and most recent works up to that point, Battle Garegga and Recca programmer Shinobu Yagawa regarded Gun Frontier as one of his favorite titles, with Yagawa revealing in a 2011 interview with Monthly Arcadia that he wanted to develop a game similar to it.[28][29] A compilation album containing the soundtrack to the game as well as the soundtracks for Metal Black and Dino Rex was released in 2012.[30]
Notes
References
- ^ a b Yanma (February 1991). "NEW VIDEO GAMES - ガンフロンティア". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 104. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. pp. 225–226.
- ^ "ガンフロンティア". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 19. SoftBank Creative. April 1991. p. 132.
- ^ "Gun Frontier". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 56. Shinseisha. April 1991. pp. 54–57.
- ^ a b c d Kalata, Kurt (30 November 2013). "Gun Frontier". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Yanma (May 1991). "アーケード・ゲーム・ギャラリー - ~ガンフロンティア~". Micom BASIC (in Japanese). No. 107. Dempa Shimbunsha. pp. 298–299. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-12-30 at the Wayback Machine).
- ^ Taito (1990). Gun Frontier (Arcade) (in Japanese). Taito. Level/area: Introduction.
- ^ Labiner, Michael (March 1991). "Coin-Op". Amiga Joker (in German). No. 15. Joker-Verlag. pp. 106–107.
- ^ a b c d e Taito (1990). Gun Frontier (Arcade) (in Japanese). Taito. Level/area: Credits.
- ).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Senba, Takatsuna (31 May 2006). "GUN&FRONTIER (c)TAITO" (in Japanese). T-1008 STUDIO. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2019. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-12-30 at the Wayback Machine).
- ^ Senba, Takatsuna (4 November 2020). "ダライアス達の失敗(1)分岐". 仙波隆綱公式ブログ (in Japanese). FC2. Archived from the original on 20 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
- )
- All Media Network. 1998. Archivedfrom the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
- ^ a b Gaksch, Martin; Lenhardt, Heinrich (April 1991). "Frankfurter Messe Rundschau". Power Play (in German). No. 37. Future Verlag. pp. 138–142.
- ^ "セガサターン対応ソフトウェア(ライセンシー発売)- 1997年発売". SEGA HARD Encyclopedia (in Japanese). Sega. 2020. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^ "『THE SHOOTING LOVE トゥエルブスタッグ&トライジール』". inhgroup.com (in Japanese). 20 April 2006. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- ^ "ガンフロンティア / アーケードギアーズ (セガサターン) - ファミ通.com". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 459. ASCII. 3 October 1997. p. 36. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- ^ Blendl, Christian (December 1997). "Overseas – Planet Saturn: Gun Frontier". MAN!AC (in German). No. 50. Cybermedia. p. 52.
- ^ Wilson, David (February 1991). "Dosh Eaters - Gun Frontier". Zero. No. 16. Dennis Publishing. p. 52.
- Tokuma Shoten Intermedia. 15 April 1998. p. 694. ASIN B00J16900U.)
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help - ^ "Now On Sale Saturn Soft Impression!! - ガンフロンティア/アーケードギアーズ". Saturn Fan (in Japanese). No. 19. Tokuma Shoten. 17 October 1997. p. 185.
- ^ "Weekly Sega Saturn Soft Review - ガンフロンティア/アーケードギアーズ". Sega Saturn Magazine (in Japanese). No. 70. SoftBank Creative. 3 October 1997. p. 244.
- )
- ^ Yanma (April 1992). "発表!1991ビデオゲーム・グランプリ - ガンフロンティア (タイトー)". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 118. Dempa Shimbunsha. pp. 284–285.
- ^ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 397. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 February 1991. p. 25.
- ^ Yanma (April 1991). "Super Soft Hot Information: Video Game! (ビデオゲーム) - Hot 20". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 106. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 254.
- ).
- ^ インタビュー - プログラマー: S. Yagawa (in Japanese). Cave. 24 August 2010. pp. 187–190.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2020-01-19 at the Wayback Machine). - ^ "赤い刀 真". Monthly Arcadia (in Japanese). No. 139. Enterbrain. December 2011. p. 88.
- ^ ""スーパースィープ"の12月新譜ゲームミュージックCD&イベント情報". Famitsu. Gzbrain. 19 December 2012. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
External links
- Gun Frontier at GameFAQs
- Gun Frontier at Giant Bomb
- Gun Frontier at Killer List of Videogames
- Gun Frontier at MobyGames
- Gun Frontier at Taito