Introduction Wild Guns was developed and published by Natsume, released for the SNES in 1994 as a rail shooter blending Wild West setting with anachronistic robots and laser weapons. Players choose from a small cast of gunslingers and shoot enemies approaching from all sides of a fixed-perspective arena, dodging incoming fire with a roll and…
Introduction Gunstar Heroes was developed by Treasure and published by Sega, released for the Genesis in 1993 as the debut title from a studio founded by former Konami developers. Players control one of two Gunstars, mixing and matching two weapon types on the fly, force, chaser, lightning, and flame, to create four unique combinations before…
Introduction Cybernator, known in Japan as Assault Suits Valken, was developed and published by Konami, released for the SNES in 1992 as a side-scrolling mech action game set during a war between Earth and its space colonies. Players pilot a Powered Armor Suit that can walk, hover, and boost through stages, mixing a rapid-fire machine…
Introduction Contra III: The Alien Wars was developed and published by Konami, released for the SNES in 1992 as the series’ debut on Nintendo’s 16-bit console. The game continued the run-and-gun formula of its NES predecessors while taking full advantage of the SNES’s Mode 7 scaling and rotation effects, alternating traditional side-scrolling stages with top-down…
Introduction Alien Storm was developed and published by Sega, originally released as an arcade game in 1990 before being ported to the Genesis, blending run-and-gun shooting with beat ’em up combat across a campaign fighting off an alien invasion of Earth. Players choose from three members of the Alien Busters team, each with a distinct…
Introduction Metal Slug 5 was developed by Noise Factory and published by SNK Playmore, released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system in 2003 as the fifth mainline entry in the run-and-gun series. Following the mixed reception to the outsourced Metal Slug 4, SNK Playmore brought development back closer to the series’ original creative team’s…
Introduction Metal Slug 4 was developed by Mega Enterprise and Noise Factory and published by SNK Playmore, released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system in 2002 as the fourth mainline entry in the run-and-gun series. Unlike the previous three games, which were developed primarily in-house at SNK, Metal Slug 4 was outsourced to the…
Introduction Vectorman was developed by BlueSky Software and published by Sega, released for the Genesis in 1995 as a run-and-gun platformer built around a distinctive visual style combining traditional 2D sprite animation with pre-rendered 3D-modeled character graphics, similar in spirit to the technique Rare had used for Donkey Kong Country on the SNES the year…
Introduction Metal Slug X was developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, released in 1999 as an enhanced remake of 1998’s Metal Slug 2, built specifically to fix that game’s notorious slowdown by trimming and rebalancing its most sprite-heavy sequences. Alongside the technical cleanup, SNK reworked enemy placement, added new…
Introduction Aliens was developed and published by Capcom, released in arcades in 1990 as a loose adaptation of the 1986 James Cameron film of the same name. Up to three players take control of Colonial Marines fighting through a series of increasingly hostile environments overrun by the film’s iconic Xenomorphs, blasting through waves of acid-blooded…
Introduction Metal Slug 3 was developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, released in 2000 as the third mainline entry in the run-and-gun series. Building on the technical lessons learned from the sprite-heavy Metal Slug 2, the game refined performance while going even further creatively, introducing branching mid-level paths that…
Introduction Metal Slug 2 was developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, released in 1998 as the direct sequel to the original Metal Slug. Players once again control members of the Peregrine Falcon Squad, running and gunning through hand-drawn, richly animated levels packed with rescuable prisoners, destructible scenery, and the…