I loved Contra III. It is one of my favorite action games of all time and blew my mind back in 1992. But you can only replay a game so many times before craving something new. Run and gun action games were not in ample supply for the then new SNES so any title in the category caught my eye. Unfortunately that meant I paid any attention to Gunforce which was a big mistake. This is not a good game at all and should be avoided at all costs.
Gunforce was not a particularly amazing game in the arcade. By the time it was released in 1991 superior games such as Sunset Riders, Total Carnage, 3 Wonders were available. While it wasn’t noteworthy it did have fast action and was solid overall. You won’t find any of that here as this SNES port is a plodding and boring mess. I don’t know what went wrong but the system is clearly capable of better. I’m just glad I rented it back in the day instead of buying it as my rage at its mediocrity would have been epic.
As an action game Gunforce has an assortment of weapons. These range from a flamethrower, laser, bazooka and machine gun. Ammo is limited but is rarely ever an issue. Any vehicle left unmanned can be ridden and there’s a wide assortment available. There are trucks, hover bikes, motorcycles, and even large helicopters that can be taken for a spin. If you can get past the dumb button reversal (Y jumps, B shoots, who the hell does that?) you might even have a little fun. I seriously doubt it though.
The greatest crime Gunforce commits is that it is flat out boring. Every aspect of the entire game moves at a glacial pace that makes me angry just thinking about. You walk slowly, enemies are slow to attack after appearing and even the damn screen is slow to advance. This isn’t the system’s fault either; you look at Contra and Cybernator and the action never stops. This comes across as a developer’s first effort on the system and is amateurish.
It’s too bad the game is lacking as it does have its moments. In the arcade you could commandeer any vehicle and turret lying around. These made for some exhilarating moments as you sped through each level in a jeep or helicopter, trying to take out as many enemies as possible before exiting before it exploded. You would think this were a different game as it lacks any of the impact of the coin op. You spend so much time waiting for the screen to advance you’ll smack into enemies and bullets instead. It is almost not even worth bothering. It’s devastating in the fact that the level design isn’t stellar but the vehicles livened up a staid game. Their implementation here is just sad.
About the only saving grace is that it will be over in one sitting. Gunforce is incredibly easy for a number of reasons. You can brush up against enemies without dying which is an odd design choice. It’s refreshing after years of instant death if you so much as grazed an object. Most enemies take ages before they let off a single shot so they pose little threat. The game is incredibly generous with lives and continues; you get four lives and five credits. Plus you respawn immediately upon death. If for some god forsaken reason you need more you can press start on controller two and continue from there. Honestly if you need to go that far you suck at videogames. Just saying.
You are better off avoiding Gunforce if you are really hard up for an old school action game. This could have been decent but is dreadful instead. Now if Irem had ported the amazing Gunforce II as an apology I could forgive them for this travesty. Oh well.
