Gunbird 2 is one of my top 3 favorites as far as graphics in a SHMUP. The graphics are simply outstanding. Sharp, crisp details of all kinds of enemies (many robotic). Backgrounds that go far beyond most games of this type. Little cartoon people running around like kooks. The level of detail is amazing and there should be some sort of award for it.
You choose among several charcters to start - and there is a variable element to what order you play the stages in. Also, as you can imagine, the diff characters have diff firepower, bombs and special attacks. For instance, one character is Alucard (that's Dracula backwards if you just woke up) - and he shoots bats as bullets.
There are 3 buttons in use: fire, bomb and close/power attack (which you need to power-up to use again). The gameplay is as smooth as the graphics and blowing the crap up is very satisfying.
There aren't a lot of inventive tricks or scoring peculiarities, the game is just solid vert SHMUPing with glorious graphics. My one criticism would be the difficulty at some points in the various stages. The screen can become so cluttered with enemy fire to avoid that all you can do is focus on navigating your way thru the crap (and just shooting willy-nilly, hoping you are hitting something). Of course, then I can't focus on the beautiful graphics because I'm just trying to survive.
When I do a GOTD, I try to cover games that not everyone knows (i.e. - no point in telling everyone about Pac-Man). So, with some games, I check a few references to see how popular/known the game is. I was surprised that Gunbird 2 isn't as well known as I thought and many folks haven't played it. Hopefully, a few of you will find it now and crank it up.
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