Gunstar Super Heroes

* Box Art
* Japanese Box Art
* Title Screen

Gunstar Super Heroes is a game released for the Game Boy Advance. It is a sequel, sometimes considered a remake, of Gunstar Heroes.

## Plot

Taking place after the destruction of Golden Silver at the end of Gunstar Heroes, the explosion created four moons orbiting the Earth. However, many years later, the creation of a mechanical fifth moon made by the Empire reveals a plan to resurrect a new Golden Silver.

Gunstars Red and Blue, named as such in tribute to the legendary warriors from the original Gunstar Heroes, combat the Empire as part of an organization called "The Third Eye". Together with Yellow, the Gunstars must travel to the moons, stop the resurrected Empire, and recapture the Treasure Gems, four mystical stones with an unknown power that drove the story of the previous game. Super Heroes has different storylines and dialogue based on what difficulty is chosen and which character the player is playing as.

## Gameplay

    Gunstar Super Heroes is seen from a 2D perspective. The *GBA* will showcase the best of its abilities with explosions almost constantly going off in every direction and enemies almost always on the screen in large numbers, coupled with bullets from both your side and the opposing side. While the game is mostly a 2D game, it does feature stages in different perspectives at times.

Unlike Gunstar Heroes, the player only has access to three different weapons, and they cannot be combined. The weapons in the game include Rapid Fire, Chaser, and Explosive. The player can also charge up a special attack, which has an effect depending on who the player is playing as. The special attack has a meter that raises whenever an enemy is damaged, and the attack can be fully performed once it's full. There are also power-ups that can raise the meter as well.

Gunstar Super Heroes is known for its variety of dialogue from many of the characters, as opposed to the first game which only had real dialogue in the beginning and end cutscenes.

## Trivia

* A section of Moon 1, the second level, requires the player to collect Chicks inside a rotating maze, and guide them into a door to complete the section of the stage. This is a reference to *Flicky*, an arcade game made by Sega.
* Multiple unused sprites can be found in the code depicting the following:
	+ The Centurion from Sega's *Altered Beast* series and the protagonist from *E-SWAT: City Under Siege* for the Sega Mega Drive.
	+ Remixes of soundtrack from *Altered Beast*, *Galaxy Force II*, *After Burner*, *Super Thunder Blade*, *E-SWAT*, and *Golden Axe*.
	+ Sprites of what seems to be concept designs for Gunstar Red and Gunstar Blue, the former having a design similar to that of the original Gunstar Red.
	+ Sprites of Golden Silver using many melee attacks which include grabbing, punching, etc.
* *Ikaruga*, another one of Treasure's franchises, is referenced in this game. The blue Treasure Gem, Satoa, resembles Stone-Like, the main antagonist of said series, and alludes to a world similar to the plot of *Radiant Silvergun*, the first game in the series.
	+ Satoa also resembles Ramiel from *Evangelion*.
* Most of the game's soundtrack is remixes of music from *Gunstar Heroes*.
* Curiously, if one enters water in the game, they will be forced into a small swim ring. One can exit the swim ring by jumping. There was no water present in the first game.
* The game has similarities to *Sonic Adventure 2*.
	+ Both endings involve two final battles in space between the main protagonist (Red or Blue, and Sonic), the game's anti-hero with a mysterious past who was previously an enemy to the protagonist (Green and Shadow), and a main antagonist that is capable of easily destroying the Earth (Golden Silver and the Biolizard, which was in its Finalhazard transformation in the ending). The main casts of both games also similarly end up working together to defeat the respective threats.
	+ Both Green and Shadow also sacrifice themselves partly in the name of their female loved ones and saving the Earth, namely Yellow and Maria, to stop the game’s main antagonist from crashing into the Earth and destroying it.
	+ Both antagonists also nearly succeeded in destroying the Earth, and both had a smaller battle inside prominent giant spacecrafts before attempting to destroy the Earth (The G-Arc or the Fifth Moon and the Space Colony Ark).
	+ Both anti-hero characters are also in their most powerful state during the endings (Seven Force and Super Shadow).
	+ Both storylines involve a character with a general dislike for Earth (General Grey and Gerald Robotnik) reviving/resurrecting an extremely powerful being who has been in stasis for a very long time (Golden Silver and the Biolizard).

## References

https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Gunstar\_Super\_Heroes