This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on February 22nd, 2020.
Welcome back to the PlayStation Basement, a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go!
Continuing the fantasy trend (Fantasy February), today’s game is a third-person shooter called Gungage. Gungage is sort of futuristic but not in any sensible way. Numerous websites online have compared the world of Gungage to other weird settings as featured in Space Harrier, Elemental Gearbolt, and Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It’s a VHS nightmare, vaporwave, science-fantasy land of monstrous insects, weird computers, and no real hard science. This weird game was developed by Konami subsidiary KCET (Poy Poy, Silent Hill, Suikoden) and released by Konami in 1999 in both Japan and Europe. Unfortunately, the game never reached North America. It’s a real shame that we had to miss out on this fast-action nonsense, but sometimes that’s how it is.
Gungage does a good job at presenting itself right off the bat, at least with the Japanese cover art. The four main characters are displayed in panels like a comic book or the film Tokyo Drifter. Each character is doing a flashy pose in their own pastel color scheme. This cover really sold me on the game when I first saw it. On the other hand, the European cover art is a mess. It’s just the main characters standing around, cropped poorly – Kard’s head is cut off! The beautiful, bright colors are all washed out into a muddy grey, and a big filter is over top of everything like it’s coming through a really bad TV screen. Why Konami went with this image in Europe, I’ll never know. I wonder what a US version would have looked like?
Gungage looks like an 80s/90s anime OVA come to the PlayStation in polygons. Dragonball, Godzilla, Baoh, Biohunter, Star Wars, they are all here. Each of the four characters looks unique, and there are many weird monsters to do battle with. From giant demonic ogres to eerie moths that flitter about to motorcycle-riding cyber-troopers, Gungage really has variety. The levels range from lush grasslands to sandy deserts and the tight corridors of scientific installations. There is even a level where you stand on a moving train as enemies attack on hovering vehicles! I thought that that was really cool! The game actually looks a lot like something that should have been on the Dreamcast; the graphics just have the designs and colors that I expect from that system. It would have been really cool to see a higher-resolution version or one in a cel-shaded style. The graphics as-is are pretty good though. They really nailed that weird science look.
As I expect from Konami, the sound is excellent all-around. Musick for Gungage was composed by two of Konami’s best - Sōta Fujimori and Michiru Yamane. Gungage was Fujimori’s first game with the company, and he went on to work mainly on tracks for Dance Dance Revolution and Pop’n Music along with Neo Contra, Rumble Roses, Winning Eleven, and Castlevania Chronicles. To many retrogaming fans, Michiru Yamane needs no introduction, having composed the amazing soundtracks for the IGA Castlevania games such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and even the new Bloodstained series. She also worked on Skullgirls, Sparkster, Pro Evolution Soccer, and Castlevania: Bloodlines. The musick in this game really shows the strength of these composers with a combination of funky dance-beats and fantastical symphonic metal. I can especially hear Yamane’s style here. The sound effects are kind of muted compared with the great score, and that’s fine. You have a lot of different shooting sounds, monstrous cries, and some voice acting announcements for picking up items and the like. The mix between constant shooting and tunage is really well done, and Gungage is a great sounding game.
As I’ve mentioned, Gungage is a third-person shooter. Players select from one of four characters (Wakle Skade, Kard Berdish, Steyr Harquebus, and Dee Van Feng) and play through nine stages. The order of the stages depends on the character selected. Each character has their own playstyle with different weapons, special moves, and general attributes. You start with only Wakle Skade and unlock other characters by completing secret objectives during each playthrough. The game is pretty fast and loose while still requiring precision. The player character auto-aims on the enemies encountered. You can also manually aim by holding L2, though that also means your character has to stand in place. I’m surprised that this game does not have analog support, as it does have a very nice vibration function. Seriously, I wouldn’t usually mention this, but the vibration was a notable part of making the game really fun. I turned it up to the highest setting, and it’s a really noticeable piece of the game. Anyway, you move around each level, destroy enemies, and collect powerups. The powerups include health (different items for each character), energy (powers your special moves), and crystals (100 crystals awards an extra life). Special moves vary immensely by character with Wakle utilizing status effect moves (stun enemies or make a shield to block shots) and Kard unleashing various attacks, for example. There are also 100 hidden Titonia flowers to collect in each level that serve to unlock various features. I was able to unlock the first bonus this week: a picture viewer. There are some great illustrations of the different characters to see, and there is more to unlock too by finding 70 or more flowers. There are different flowers for each character, though some of the same locations remain and cannot be obtained again. This really adds a great amount of replay value to the game combined with the different characters to play as.
I have some slight criticisms of Gungage. The controls are slightly stiff, though it is nothing that ruins the game. Along with perhaps having the right-stick to aim, it would have been smoother to move with the left-stick. The controls are kind of in-between Resident Evil’s tank controls and the usual kind of movement of games such as Super Mario 64. The controls are really buffed up by having the shoulder buttons to strafe and the ability to side-step by double-tapping the same button. It’s useful for getting out of situations that might otherwise be awkward with the movement as-is. My other small issue with the game is that the platforming, though barely existent, is not very good. Your character can jump with the X button, something that is immensely useful for dodging enemy attacks. The awkward part is that the jump is higher than it is longer. There were moments when I tried to jump to a platform to miss it by several in-game feet. It was hard to judge the distance. Once I got used to it, it wasn’t so bad, but this is something that could have been improved.
Overall, Gungage is an amazing game. After finally playing it, I’d have to say that this is one of my favorites on the console! The musick, graphics, gameplay, and overall designs are just awesome, and I recommend tracking this down wholeheartedly. That weird fantasy style just can’t be beat!
Gungage receives a Good.
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