GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island

The Good
Irem is best known for creating the excellent R-Type series, but they managed to dish out a few beat-em-ups from time to time. One such game is GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island, a game that also saw a release on the Super Nintendo. Up to two players battle it out to destroy a fortified sea base that has been causing havoc in neighboring countries. The game takes place across five levels, which have you killing enemy upon enemy and defeating a structure at the end of each level.

Like other beat-em-ups, the object of each of the six levels is to run to the right, shoot enemies using a variety of weapons, and defeat a boss at the end to proceed to the next stage. I believe GunForce is the first game to offer a new mechanic: the ability to commandeer vehicles, using their weapons rather than yours. The best thing about this is that you can literally ram into enemies.

Graphic-wise, the game opens up with a nice cut-scene showing a plane parachuting your hero into the jungle. I like how all this takes place at night. The first few levels are set in the jungle, then it is mountains, bases, and eventually the enemy’s headquarters. The status bar and the different structures you have to fight through look good, as are the intermissions that occur between levels, showing a great portrait of the hero flapping his mouth quickly.

There is background music throughout the game, but it is rather uninteresting in the earlier levels. However, the tunes from then on are much better. In the jungle levels, you hear birds chirping, adding to their atmosphere. I like the sound effect of your character being killed.

The Bad
Nothing is bad about this game.

The Bottom Line
GunForce is an excellent beat-em-up with good graphics and sound effects. Like R-Type II, released before it, the game features a short cut-scene at the beginning of the game. A first for an Irem game (released in the arcades anyway) is the addition of intermissions between levels. The music may be bad at first, but it gets better. Definitely one for the beat-em-up fans.