"suddenly, at locations everywhere, beasts have begun to appear and attack people". note
Gungage is a 1999 Run-and-Gun third-person shooter developed by Konami for the PlayStation.
Taking place in a fantasy world reminiscent of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, where humanity and giant insects co-exists alongside each other, the peacefulness mankind enjoys is unexpectedly shattered when the insects suddenly turns on humans. Unprepared for the war, mankind was almost wiped out, and its up to four heroes to uncover the truth behind the insect invasion by venturing under a series of ruins.
Four Player Characters are available:
- Wakle Skade, the first playable hero, who takes up pretty much most of the promotional materials, his trusty automatic-firing pistol included,
- Kard Berdish, who knew the secrets behind the insect attacks — specifically, him being part of a research to weaponize insects that ends up horribly wrong and wish to set things right,
- Steyr Harquebus, a minigun toting resistance heroine whose weapon's barrel is taller than she is, and
- Dee Van Feng, a teen cyborg who uses dual Uzis.
Gungage to Engage!
- After the End: The entire game takes place after most of humanity are wiped out by giant insects, with abandoned towns and ruins infested by monsters as what's left of mankind.
- Airborne Mooks: Giant winged insects, including butterflies and dragonflies, are among the recurring enemy types in the game.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Most of the bosses have a weak spot which the players can specifically target to inflict greater damage. For insect-based bosses like the giant spider and giant moth, its the abdomen, while the mechanical-based bosses have cores that are weaker than the rest of their body. This is where the Lock-On comes in handy...
- Beam Spam:
- The Golem boss in the Stonehenge-like structure attacks the player by repetitive energy blasts, which the players can only avoid by taking cover behind the stones.
- The giant horned lizard monster Boss in the underground lair will repeatedly try to incinerate players with his laser breath.
- The Final Boss — not only can it fire energy beams on its own, it can also launch six beams at a time to all corners of the arena and send them reflecting towards your player.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The game is filled with these enemy types, from bugs to butterflies, including a Giant Moth as a boss.
- Bottomless Magazines: The players' firearms will never run dry of bullets. Which is great, because they'll be shooting stuff a LOT.
- Camera Lock-On: One of the benefits in this game, if a player isn't firing while there are monsters nearby an automated crosshair will show up and target the nearest enemies.
- Charged Attack: Players can execute a charged shot that does stronger damage on bosses by holding down the attack button.
- Circle of Standing Stones: Early in the game, the player will need to investigate the source of the monsters, by entering a Stonehenge-esque circle of stones to read some runes. Unfortunately, there's a powerful Golem in its center which attacks intruders on sight serving as the boss.
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: The ruin's central tower boss, which is stationary but has its own mechanized turrets for backup.
- Cyborg: Dee Van Feng, a cyborg teen and one of the unlockable heroes.
- David Versus Goliath: In typical video game style, your human-sized heroes against bosses which are absolute behemoths towering over you.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Final Boss and the cause of the monster invasion, in a nutshell. It's partially mechanical, partially insectoid, appears to have plant petals on its shoulders, has rocks growing on its body, eyes on the BACK of its hands, and comes at you on tiny, yet fast-moving crablike legs. It's definitely not based on any living creature, for sure...
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Anything that moves and isn't the player themselves (or another player on 2P mode), is definitely hostile.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Part of the implied reason why the giant insects would want to attack humanity, occasionally noted during the game, though not outright stated.
- Giant Spider: Yet another enemy type, including an absolutely massive one serving as a boss in the abandoned city area.
- Guns Akimbo: Many characters can collect powerups that gives them two weapons both at once. Dee Van Feng uses twin Uzis by default.
- Hellhound: The ruins contains a pair of rampaging, fire-breathing canines serving as a Dual Boss.
- Lost Technology: The ruins level underneath the circle of stones turns out to be filled with robots from some unknown past civilizations. Unfortunately, entering the area causes them to reactivate and attack everything in sight.
- Mecha-Mooks: Of both modern and ancient varieties; certain players (like Steyr) will end up battling robots in the laboratories, while the level in the ruins have robots left over from some extinct civilization.
- More Dakka: The players' firearms which fires on full-auto, even for the protagonist Wakle who appears to be using a pistol (granted, it's probably a futuristic weapon, but still...). The guns can keep spewing hundreds of rounds without overheating.
- Moth Menace: Giant moths are a recurring enemy type, including a Giant Moth as a boss which attacks you atop a pyramid.
- Pivotal Boss: The eldritch-esque Final Boss, terrifying as it is, doesn't really move around much. Instead the entire fight have you running circles around it while avoiding its Beam Spam and shooting its central core.
- Sand Worm: The level in a deserted city will throw gigantic, sand-dwelling trilobite monsters that attacks by popping out the ground. They even leave behind a sandy Worm Sign while moving.
- See the Invisible: There's
an area dreaded by most players, it has invisible tanks firing on your character. But if you are using Steyr Harquebus, then it's a cakewalk. Defying Goggles Do Nothing, the googles on her head will give her nightvision detection of those tanks. - Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: The default PlayStation cover
depicts Wakle about to shoot the player. - Small Girl, Big Gun: Steyr Harquebus' weapon is a large-barreled automatic rifle taller than she is. And she's damn good at using it to slaughter plenty of monsters.
- Traintop Battle: One of the levels has players battling airborne enemies while on top of a moving train.
- Unexpectedly Abandoned: Every single urban area, including towns, villages and cities, are absolutely devoid of life thanks to the aftermath of the monster invasion, where your playable character gets to roam around deserted town squares while fending off monsters.
- Your Head Asplode: The giant horned lizard boss suffers this fate after being defeated, complete with a lengthy cutscene where it desperately tries climbing after the player... with only half a head.
