Front Mission, Gun Hazard, for SNES

Rating: 9.0/10; Masterpiece

Strongly recommended for both action and RPG fans

Gun Hazard is a 2D shooter-platformer with many RPG elements which takes place in a future era Earth. The story is excellent, being comparable to the greatest RPGs of all time. It is mostly told during and after missions through dialogue between the various characters and has good pacing. The only part that I did not like about it was near the end after the big reveal about who the main villain is and why they are the villain, because the game does not explore the background of the villain. I would have liked to know more, though this lack of understanding leaves good ground for a sequel.

The characters are another highlight of the game. Through dialogue, the unique personalities, motivations and other features are revealed and lead to a memorable and well created caste; even the bad guys and some minor characters. You are able to take a single party member into combat and each has their own style and equipment (though most drive mechs like you). One of the most interesting features of the game is that equipment is not permanent. If an AI controlled party member “dies”, they lose their currently equipped vehicle and you must buy a new one. A similar concept applies to you except that you are given the option to restart upon death instead of losing your mech. However, if you leave a level without your mech or let it be destroyed while you are not in it, you will lose it and all weapons attached to it. This happened to me twice; once by choice and once because I did not bring a good enough jet pack and could not get out of the level. While this is realistic, you are much better off loading a save and redoing the level.

Speaking of just how you can leave your mech behind, you are able to exit and move around on foot. The mechs are much more powerful, though as infantry you have infinite flight and can fit into small areas. The infantry is able to shoot a gun horizontally, throw grenades and dodge projectiles, but will take contact damage from enemies. Most of the gameplay takes place in your mech, where you use a single infinite ammo basic weapon, and a variety of special weapons with limited ammo, as well as a jetpack for limited flight. Aiming is extremely well done, with the “up” and “down” buttons changing your firing arc a full 180 degrees and “left” and “right” changing your facing, so you get a full 360 degrees coverage without moving. Add to that the ability to jump, fly, dash and block.

The RPG elements include gaining xp and money from defeated enemies. Leveling up will increase your stats a bit, and it more importantly unlocks better weapons and mechs, which require money to buy. The game does allow you to revisit most areas, so grinding is an option. I especially like the variety of weapons and how each performs differently, leading to a fairly wide variety of tactics considering all the possible combinations and different enemies.

Overall, this game is just as well crafted as Square’s best SNES RPGs and provides a very interesting mix of RPG and shooter. Only some less than ideal controls and a lack of replayability and optional content hold the game back a little.

Pro

• Excellent story, dialogue and characters
• Variety of customization and tactics, depending on which ally, weapons and mech upgrades you choose
• Good 2D aiming controls
• Mech is unable to shoot immediately after landing, making it feel like you are piloting something with massive weight and making jumping or falling a tactical consideration
• Level map
• There is a limit to the number of enemies in each level with a bar showing how many are left. Killing enemies depletes the bar. Enemies spawn randomly near you, and this system is a great balance between infinitely respawning enemies and pre placed enemies
• Wide variety of enemies with completely new types introduced throughout the entire game
• Levels have good variety of terrain (including underwater and high in the sky) and interesting objectives (including things like avoiding bombardment and fleeing massive explosions)

Con

• Double press “left” or “right” to dash. I hate this kind of control because it is awkward to use when you want to, and frequently used accidentally
• Melee attack for the mech is a special weapon. There is no basic melee, and no way to stomp on small enemies (especially infantry) or do contact damage like enemies do to you while you are on foot
• Extremely limited weapon variety for on foot. You only get pistols. There are no other weapons to use, like assault rifles or rocket launchers
• Being on foot is mostly optional. There could have been more mandatory sequences or even entire levels on foot
• Lack of mech variety. The mechs you use progress linearly and there are no tactical considerations between which to use. For example, there is no agile mech that focuses on flight and jumping, or no heavy juggernaught that is slow but hard to damage
• Pressing “down” + “jump” is used to transition through doors and exit levels. This is not explained in the game and took me quite some time to figure out
• Healing items are used while paused with no limitations. There are no tactical considerations when using these items in combat
• Only current ally gains xp, making it hard to level everyone up
• One ally does friendly fire, making him far less useful
• Ally AI is not very good with no ability to give commands
• Cannot block or melee while airborne or swimming
• No aiming while infantry; you only shoot straight ahead
• The few aerial levels make little sense. How can the mech suddenly fly for an entire level when that is not even close to possible in a ground level?