Dude, The Terminator totally got it right: robots will rise up to destroy the human race. Fortunately, there is something we can do about it. In the mid-to-late '90s, arcades everywhere armed kids and young adults with hefty, plastic light guns and enlisted them in the fight against robo-terrorism. I'm talking about Sega's frenzied shooters Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns.
Gunblade NY came out in 1995 and, while it may have been a bit overshadowed by Time Crisis that same year, it was a unique light gun game that attracted many arcade goers. Of course, there have been a plethora of arcade games that used cabinet mounted machine guns before this: Taito's Operation Wolf series and Space Gun (one of my favorites), Namco's Steel Gunner series (another of my favorites), and Midway's Revolution X and, yes, Terminator 2, to name a few. However, Gunblade NY did a couple of things differently that set it apart from the others.
First, there's the cabinet design. If you look at the picture above (which is a pic of LA Machineguns, I know, but Gunblade NY did the same thing), you'll notice those light guns are pretty hefty looking. Previous machine gun games had you holding this small, one-handed, uzi-type gun or something similar to that. You had to hunch over the arcade cabinet and hold your face close to the gun in order to play. But the guns on Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns meant business. They were designed to be held in both hands, comfortably, at the waist, which felt more natural. The gun design was awesome, with a nice, weighty feel and a heavy recoil. These games let you know that you weren't playing with some tiny pea shooter. You were taking out the androids with a heavy duty cannon.
The other thing these games did differently to their predecessors is their use of polygonal 3D environments. Previous light gun games relied on simple forward and side-scrolling levels with enemies just popping out into the line of fire. Gunblade NY took the same technology that fueled 1994's Virtua Cop, along with other titles in the Virtua series, and created something that had much more dynamic action. Enemies would actually dodge and weave through gunfire, requiring players to keep a bead on them in order to take them down. Your vehicle, either Gunblade NY's attack helicopter or LA Machineguns' hoverbikes, took tight corners, made strafing runs, and stopped on a dime as they flew over, under, and through each city.
Of course, these games have their slight differences, being that Gunblade NY was released in '95 and LA Machineguns in '98, but they're mostly cosmetic. The gap in graphics between these two is about the same as the gap between Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter 3 (if you've ever seen those games). LA Machineguns looks nicer than Gunblade NY, but both of them definitely look dated, by today's standards. This isn't to say that they look horrible. Both of them look significantly better than the original Virtua Fighter, which may be one of the ugliest arcade games of the '90s. The only other difference is how the enemies act. In Gunblade NY, androids do lots of crazy acrobatics, trying to dodge your gunfire. In LA Machineguns, they don't flip out of the way as much, which makes it a little easier to hit them. Both games are very short and have been known for being a bit too easy. Still, dropping a couple quarters to wield a metal blasting cannon never gets old.
Last year, Sega released both of these games in a collection for the Wii. Of course, the question is whether or not these games still hold up without the feel of a big honking gun in your hands. Actually, the answer is yes. While the Wiimote is no substitute for the arcade feel, the gameplay is still just as fun. The collection doesn't add much extra stuff to the games, with the exception of alternate fire modes, like rapid fire, after you beat the game a couple times. Other than that, it's a pretty straightforward port of these two arcade games. You can pick up the collection for real cheap (usually around $20, but my wife found a copy for me at Costco for $10). If you have a Wii and fondly remember shooting up android terrorists, you won't regret getting this collection.
Until next time, keep your scores high and your pockets full.
(The YouTube video above was created by lucisac).
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