Gunbird 2 is a 2D scrolling shooter, sequel

Sequel

A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

 to the original Gunbird

Gunbird

Gunbird , retitled Mobile Light Force for the European and U.S. PlayStation releases, is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up released in 1994 by Japanese company Psikyo. It was followed by a sequel, Gunbird 2, in 1998.-Story:...

game.

Story

Through gameplay cutscenes (and endings) it appears that the zany, uproarious (and at times rather adult) humor is considerably increased since the original Gunbird. The game has numerous similarities to the Parodius

Parodius

, or just Parodius, is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Konami for the MSX computer and was released in Japan. The game is notable for being the first title in the Parodius series, although it is often confused with its sequel Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－ in that respect, which...

series, including the final boss in the game, a cartoon elephant playing a trumpet.

Gameplay

There are seven stages in each game loop (two loops total). The first three stages are randomly chosen from possible four. At 2nd loop, enemies fire denser bullet patterns moving at faster speeds. Stage 2-1 takes place at the only stage not available in 1st loop, instead of the 1-1 counterpart. After completing 1st loop with only one player, player can choose one of two choices for a wish with magic potion, with unique ending for each choice. If 1st loop is completed with two players, a combination-specific ending is played.

This is the first Psikyo shooter to feature medal-chaining: picking up 2000 point medals (when they flash) repeatedly results in a slight point increase and a coin chain, recorded separately from the score. This was later featured in Strikers 1945 III/Strikers 1999

Strikers 1945 III

Strikers 1945 III is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up released in 1999 by Japanese company Psikyo.- Gameplay :thumb|left|In-game screenshot...

and Strikers 1945 Plus

Strikers 1945 Plus

Strikers 1945 Plus is a shoot 'em up video game for the Neo Geo MVS arcade System created by Psikyo. This game is a remix of Strikers 1945 and Strikers 1945 II on a horizontal screen.-Gameplay:...

.

Characters

Player characters

• Great magician Marion (マリオン): The 9-year-old (mentally 17) English witch from Gunbird returns, with Pom-Pom returning as well.
• Flying excellence Tavia (タビア): A cute, bespectacled, 9-year-old German-English girl with a jetpack on her back. She is the niece of Ash (who cameos in some of her co-op endings) from the original Gunbird. Emotional and cries easily. When paired with Alucard, she falls in love with him.
• Lonely vampire Alucard (アルカード): The 300-year-old son of Dracula
  Dracula
  Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
  
   (hence the backward spelling) from Romania. Also a vampire, and capable of great inhuman powers. Although he is good in comparison to his father, he still craves human blood.
• Brown fat body Hei-Cobb (ヘイコブ): A short, fat, turban-sporting man of Arabic descent. He rides a flying carpet. During his cutscenes he is sometimes proud, and sometimes ashamed, of his figure.
• Military robot Valpiro (バルピロ): The same robot as Valnus in the original Gunbird, from Russia. He may have sinister plans for the potion if he obtains it, depending on which ending you receive.
• Aine: A one-eyed samurai from Sengoku Ace series. Whereas it is not clear in the Sengoku Ace game that he is unclosetedly homosexual (like Tetsu in Gunbird), such subtlety is thrown out the window in Gunbird 2, especially during the ending scene with Aine and another cooperative player, in which he takes his partner to bed with him (in his co-op ending with Marion, he does this to a Pom-Pom turned human, while in the ending with Tavia, he does so to Ash). In arcade machine, Aine is selectable if arcade board settings allow Aine to be selected.
• Morrigan
  Morrigan Aensland
  is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in many of her video game appearances, except in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where she was voiced by Rie Tanaka....
  
  : A succubus
  Succubus
  In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus is a female demon appearing in dreams who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus...
  
   from the Darkstalkers series. On the Dreamcast version, pressing up or down on the random character select allows the player to choose between Aine and Morrigan.

Boss characters

• The Queen Pirates (空賊, "Sky Pirate"): The enemy in Gunbird 2, a busty pirate woman Shark and her sidekicks, Blade and Gimmick. Their design is based on the Dorombo Gang (Time Bokan
  Time Bokan
  is a Japanese anime series first aired on Fuji TV from October 4, 1975 to December 25, 1976 throughout Japan every Saturday at 6:30pm, with a total of 61 30-minute episodes. It was produced by Tatsunoko Productions, who later produced a number of spinoff programs as part of the "Time Bokan...
  
  /Yatterman
  Yatterman
  is a Japanese anime television series broadcast from January 1, 1977 to January 27, 1979, comprising 108 episodes. It is the second and longest show in the Time Bokan series by Tatsunoko Productions...
  
  villains). They are met and fought at the end of each stage, piloting various giant mecha
  Mecha
  A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
  
   robots.
• The Elephant God: The end boss and an obvious parody of Sato-chan, the mascot of Sato Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese pharmaceutical company. This is appropriate, given that the protagonists in the game are all searching for a cure to their individual weakness, and Sato-chan is a pop culture icon in Japan.

Multilingual support

The arcade game supports both English and Japanese languages, chosen via arcade board dip switch settings. The language setting is Japanese if dip switches are set to Japanese, English otherwise.

Dreamcast version

New fighters in the Sega Dreamcast

Sega Dreamcast

The is a 128-bit video game console which was released by Sega in late 1998 in Japan and from September 1999 in other territories. It was the first entry in the sixth generation of video game consoles, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube.Dreamcast sales were...

, released in 2000, include Morrigan and Aine (an unlocked character). Other new features include Internet ranking, gallery, and voices during intermission.

PlayStation 2 version

PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 version of the game was based on arcade version.

PlayStation Portable version

A enhanced remake, titled Gunbird 2 Remix was announced by PM Studios for PlayStation Portable

PlayStation Portable

The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...

 (via PlayStation Network) in 2009. However, as of 2011, it is yet to be released, and no info has been given.

External links

X-nauts website (archived) Capcom website