Gun Frontier

Gun Frontier is a vertical STG/“shmup” released in 1990 by Taito. Releases outside Japan are titled Gun & Frontier. It has not aged as well as other Taito games from the era, and is mostly known today for its extreme difficulty (if one isn't using autofire) and influence on later STGs. The ZUNTATA soundtrack, however, remains as amazing as ever.

The setting and graphic design were unique for the time, depicting a subtly futuristic, Wild West-themed world, with many fighters and tanks styled after revolver guns. The attract mode's story cutscene is also notable: for its seriousness, its use of vintage black-and-white photos, and its digitized voiceover (in the Japanese version). However, the story does not really carry over into gameplay.

It has been cited by designer Shinobu Yagawa as the direct inspiration for Battle Garegga. In fact, all of Gun Frontier's unique gameplay elements were in some way reworked into Garegga, and the games share a similar, gritty-industrial aesthetic. Both games' first stages even begin with rows of tanks.

Metal Black is officially known as its sequel (“Project Gun Frontier 2”), though there is little that would suggest this.

Ports

- Saturn - 1997 (ported by Xing under the Arcade Gears label, not emulated like on PS2)

- PlayStation 2 - 2005 (part of Taito Memories Gekan compilation)

- PlayStation 2 - 2006 (part of Taito Legends 2 compilation)

 
 game/gun_frontier.txt · Last modified: 2017/04/08 09:58 (external edit)
[unknown button type]
 
Recent changes RSS feed Driven by DokuWiki