Gun-Nac (Ascii, September 1991) -

Gun-Nac

Publisher : Ascii

Released : September 1991

Genre : Shooter

Summary

Basic summary of gameplay or storyline.

You assume the role of commander Gun-Nac. You fight a host of enemies from your space ship, in which you battle your way through 8 separate levels. The ship can be upgraded to a larger ship by acquiring a "wing" for your plane, which allows the player to sustain two enemy hits rather than one, and allows the player to upgrade his weapons farther than his standard ship would allow. The game contains 5 primary weapons, as well as 4 types of secondary bombs. The primary weapons range from a standard gun to a flamethrower, to a type of guided boomerang, have unlimited ammunition, and are obtained by collecting circles with numbers that correspond to one of the 5 different weapons. The secondary bombs work on a similar principle. They are obtained by collecting similar circles with corresponding letters within them. The bombs however, are limited in supply to however many you can collect. In addition, the primary weapons can be upgraded by collecting multiple "Power P's" that float through the stage.

Gun-Nac @ Wikipedia

Zanac (NES)

Publisher : FCI

Released : 1987

Guardian Legend, The (NES)

Publisher : Broderbund

Released : 1988

Editor Notes

Notes from Crow, NESguide's editor.

This game was made with a lot of love, and it shows. Apparently a relative to Zanac, hence the 'nac', this may be one of the best vertical shooters released on the North American NES - without a doubt, the best NES shooter that most people have never heard of.

There are 5 different weapons to choose from with varied pattern and increased strength for 5 upgrades per weapon, plus a wing that alters the patterns more and will absorb one damage (breaking off) to spare your ship. Each weapon requires a different strategy, so replaying the game can be a different experience if you want to mix things up.

Last but not least, every single BGM in this game is an absolute banger... and there's even a sound test! I was able to get further than I expected during the NESguide 4K gameplay. On practice runs, I had to use continues a few times. I'm not sure that they are limited, which is great. Unlimited continues take a lot of the pressure out of games like this. There are also difficulty settings in the interestingly-named options menu CONFIG.SYS.