It is what it is, which is an animated, interactive Where's Wally book with some breather minigames between pages. It's not often I felt like cracking one of those open and finding every little secret admittedly, but given how busy I've personally been lately, it's been the perfect thing to mentally wind down to! Very much recommended if you want to stare at a screen and click on things for a while, but much like the books it draws inspiration from, don't expect much to do after every folk has been unveiled? Can't imagine anyone expecting anything less, though...

If Square-Enix had half a brain and a lick of sense, they'd stop trying to push whatever dangerously shitty tech bro pyramid scheme they got conned into thinking was a good idea and actually use some of that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: Shadowbringers: Skywalker Saga money to do SOMETHING with this forgotten gem. I'd be personally fine with a port (with all the usual M2/Emulator bells and whistles a la save states, widescreen modes, etc.), but I wouldn't be offended at the idea of a remake/remaster of some kind. Hell, a sequel -spiritual or otherwise- would be pretty cool too, perhaps with some of the original creatives behind the first on board? Because you just KNOW they've got ideas cooking for another game like this...

I open this bombastically because, frankly, this game does as well. You're protecting the president of of Bergen from a particularly nasty coup d'état that's unfolding underneath the long shadow of an abandoned space elevator, and it only gets more 80's era Sunrise Studios from there. More important than any plot, however, is that it's an absolute BANGER of an action game too, a real standout mecha game that stands toe to toe with the best of the genre (Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner) by sheer virtue of being virtually rock solid on every front!

Now, I'm probably gonna rustle some feathers by saying this, but Gun Hazard here's the rare Squaresoft game that's not only great to experience, but to actually control and play for the fun of it, thanks to co-developer Omiya Soft's previous experience in the field of 16 bit mecha games (Assault Suits Valken, specifically). It's hard to really compare it to anything else, but the way you throw yourself about, float around and explode shit from carefully considered distances has an almost Cave Story level of bliss to it when you level everything up, feeling remarkably tactile and weighty for a Super Famicom sidescroller and just a delight to work with in general!

Oh, uh right. Better stop gassing the game up now and get to the other reason I began with talks of ports, remakes and sequels, hey...

So many of the actual 'role playing' mechanics here, from leveling up both yourself and your weapons, resource management, teaming up and giving commands to CPU (or P2, with a code) controlled partners of various builds and types, something else I'm probably forgetting, etc. are a just a little too under-cooked to matter in the long run, but enough of a hassle to wonder if something could've been done to make all this fluff more engaging. And I feel, in my heart of hearts, that some sort of rerelease could be a good excuse to flesh some of these ideas out or, at the very least, offer a 'hard mode' where they matter in a truly meaningful way! Because the game's just a BIT too easy as is, like someone was worried that it'd be too difficult for the casual player/RPG fan to beat?

It's a shame, but only a slight one, because that means more people'll get to see a team of expert artists and musicians flex their skills on a system that, at the time of release, was well considered 'last gen'. Yes, it's 1996, and sprite art on the Super Famicom's never been better, with effects mimicking natural sunlight and burning embers being especially stunning against the war torn deserts, the rolling countrysides and the cityscapes reduced to rubble in realtime you play through, stage by stage. And look, when I say that Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Junya Nakano and Masashi Hamauzu manage to produce a sci-fi score well worth listening to outside of the game, who amongst you's really gonna contest it? Yeah, didn't think so...

..But thinking about the game in general, I'm of two minds: It's a DAMN solid action game that more people should ABSOLUTELY play in SOME FORM OR ANOTHER, but it's also a game that's begging to be elaborated on, expanded upon, perhaps realized to it's fullest potential. Letting the imagination wander, it's easy to imagine a timeline where Squaresoft and Omiya Soft went whole hog, having this whole little subseries that stands proud with the likes of Ace Combat and Armored Core, balancing run-and-gun war crimes with a minimum wage that forces you to strictly budget every refuel, reload and weapon purchase... Ah, it'd probably be a top seller on the Dreamcast 2, for sure!

Alas, one can dream... And hope that Square-Enix gets a grip at some point.