This is good and clean bullet hell fun
Bombastic bullets, bombs, and special attacks. You’re getting a taste of everything in the wild vertical shooter Gunbird 2 from shoot-’em-up practitioner Psikyo. Whether that taste is enough to whet your appetite for further shmup adventures is another story, one I believe is worth at least reading.
Gunbird 2 is your average vertical shooter in that it subscribes to bullet hell 
environments. There are seven characters to choose from, each with their own motivations for capturing three mystical elements and presenting them to their god. All of them fly around various stages in the Gunbird world, blowing up enemies and taking on the boss Shark and her cronies Blade and Gimmick of the Queen Pirates. The story is simple to get into and won’t take up too much of your time through static screens explaining the situation at hand.
It’s easy to understand the mechanics as well. Each character has five attacks: Primary, secondary, charge, melee, and super weapon. The primary weapon is either a
concentrated or spread shot with all other weapons specific to the character in animation. It’s fun to try all of the characters to see how their weapons animate and behave, and it’s important to as well, because there is strategy involved. Knowing when to initiate a super weapon is crucial for maintaining combos and saving yourself or your teammate if you’re playing alongside someone else. The attacks are all assigned to buttons so you don’t have to do too much to move around and attack. It’s simplistic and yet chaotic at times, but it’s fun chaos.
The presentation is gorgeous while you’re dodging enemies and getting shot from all 
directions. The color palette is beautiful and the character animation shines. And, yes, even though Psikyo carried over Morrigan’s dog-tired sprite from Darkstalkers it still works here. You immediately know who she is, and it doesn’t look to terrible against the backdrops of bullet hell. The other characters look good for late ’90s animation. While the animation is good, the soundtrack is passing, if not a bit late ’90s mediocre. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t standout. A single track caught our attention, which is OK. Not all shoot-’em-ups get to be Galaga Arrangement or Gradius.
Overall, Gunbird 2 is a good vertical shooter in a crowded genre populated by heavy hitters. It shoots its way to the middle of the pack, and while it won’t knock your socks off, it’s got replay value and charm built into its laser.
I enjoyed the games that I had for them, especially the Genesis. One of those games has an arcade background shared with Gauntlet with elements of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop games. If you older readers know what I’m talking about, respect. For you younger readers, listen and learn of the tale of Golden Axe.
you a choice of three warriors: Ax Battler, who wields a broadsword; Gilius Thunderhead, a dwarf warrior with a battle ax; and, an Amazonian warrior, Tyris Flare, whose weapon of choice is a longsword. These warriors were brought together by twist of fate thanks to an evil entity known as Death Adder, who has captured the kingdom of Yuria along with its king and his daughter. The three heroes have also lost loved ones at Death Adder’s hands and set off on their quest to destroy Death Adder and restore hope and peace to Yuria. 
Tyris have is their unique ability to cast magic spells that does serious damage to all enemies on screen. However, this special attack comes with two caveats: magic energy has a high cost and protecting your necessary magic potions from thieving elves is a chore. Now, this is the part where you ask, “what’s the payoff with the character’s magic attacks?” Good question! Tyris wields fire magic, Ax’s specialty is earth spells and my favorite character, Gilius, literally brings the thunder with lighting spells. It’s easy to understand the mechanics and use everything in the heat of battle. 
hell and high water. But wait, this time it’s different! No, you aren’t saving Pauline this time around; no, you’re Donkey Kong Jr., the scion of Kongdom saving your incorrigible father from the clutches of evil human Mario. The fact that another ape has to save his parental figure from Mario in a complete role reversal begs several questions: Where was Junior when his father was kidnapping innocent maidens and running rampant? Why would Mario even bother to kidnap the great ape in the first place? Sure, there’s the motive of revenge, but you’re never going to get your question answered, try as you might. You just have to accept that 
Instead, you’ll watch Junior repeatedly get eaten alive by crocodiles (we’re not sure why a plumber would employ these dangerous live creatures to kill an ape), nailed by random falling objects and fall to his obvious and horrific death, all because he’s underdeveloped at jumping and climbing.
modern gaming society have been resurrected, and I’m not exactly sure for whose benefit. Hard Drivin’, mentioned and dissected in GI’s horrible games podcast of yesteryear, is the worst offender of the bunch. I have no earthly idea who thought this was an arcade classic and why it needed to be thrust upon the masses again. It was a horrible game to begin with and deserves no further discussion or inclusion to reanimate it from the depths of hell where it belongs (Editor’s Note: Fun factoid — Hard Drivin’ provided the basis for GI’s Torture of the Quarter column). N.A.R.C. also warrants a mention as a title to avoid, as well as Primal Rage. Let’s face it, Primal Rage was touted as competition for the likes of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Killer Instinct back in the day, but no one with any sense ever took it seriously. The game doesn’t inspire any new feelings of doing so after 20 years.
What is welcome, however, is the inclusion of the behind-the-scenes material. Documentaries and making-of materials are included as bonus features for a few games, most notably Mortal Kombat 
The graphics, like the soundtrack, are nothing to get excited about. There’s a static crowd except for the courtside folk, and then there’s the players. Jam popularized the over-exaggerated look for players, and it certainly had its uses. It’s not out of place for Jam, and it brings a certain atmosphere to the action that Jam benefits from.