In the past, I tried writing a walkthrough for Gunstar Heroes. It never did get finished though. SO I thought, "Hey, why not return to it and finish it off?". The following thingies are what I wrote before it ended up becoming... Abandoned or something. So let us begin.




Welcome to the Gunstar Heroes walkthrough!

TheFadedWarrior already did a guide showing the different weapon combinations so you should check it out. Also note that one of the buttons can cancel out certain parts of the weapon combination you are using so remember that. Figure out what you set it to by pushing all your buttons. You can also choose between free shot and fixed shot. Free shot plays like Contra and fixed shot plays like Bass from Megaman. I prefer fixed but you can choose whichever you like.

With that out of the way, let's get started.

Stage 1: Pink's Stage

When you start out, run and shoot your enemies. Now, I'll go into the enemy types.

There are soldiers that can do things like kick you. Some of them do poses and can throw you for 20 damage. The helicopter enemies just kind of fly around and shoot at you.

You then fight a phantom. I'd recommend throwing these guys but do whatever works. Later, these guys will throw skull bombs at you and do quite a bit of damage. Once you've defeated him, pickup the health he drops by ducking and shooting and head off to fight your first boss.

BOSS FIGHT: Papaya Dance

This asparagus looking thing wiggles around and drops dangerous balloons on you. On normal and up, it also spawns weird insects. Destroy them or avoid them, whichever you can. Shoot the top part enough and it dies.

There will be a soldier setting fire to a house. You can ignore him if you want but when the house is destroyed he acts like other soldiers. Fight another phantom and head on to a pyramid.

Soldiers with helicopter pack things will shoot at you. Just ignore them, as there are an infinite amount of them. There will be two item birds. One has weapons, one has health. Be sure not to shoot them until they are out of the pyramid or you will be unable to get the item. Head up to the top to fight...

BOSS BATTLE: Bravoo Man.

I'm not really in to super heroes, but If there had to be an exception, Bravoo Man would take the cake. He makes his body parts become green and those parts can actually hurt you. Be sure to kill him before he uses his special healing attack and gets his Vitality back!

The floor breaks and you slide down the smoother side of the pyramid. Soldiers bounce at you, so shoot them. Some green legged ones appear too, they will shoot at you so be sure to avoid their attacks.

You will now be in a forest. A claw will try to grab you, so it should be obvious to avoid it. The bees that come from the bee hives just follow you and hover over your head and only hurt you if you jump into them. Eventually the claw will go crazy and you must defeat some soldier enemies. Once that is over, prepare to fight the...


BOSS BATTLE: Pinky Roader


I'm not sure how something that travels on legs is a roader. I was thinking a giant motor bike. Now, this machine holds one of Pink's henchmen as he shoots at you. It's rather easy to avoid really. Pink will then... Cheer? I don't know, but point is it starts shooting homing bombs and may jump at you on higher difficulties. It also has an attack called "Iron Knuckle" (Zelda reference FTW), but I have never seen it in action because I had already won. And unless you just wait to see what Iron Knuckle actually IS, I bet you will have too.

When you Win, you get the Blue Gem as Team Rocket blasts off again.


You should probably go for Orange next since your starting vitality increases when you beat a stage and seven force is HARD.






Stage 2: Orange's Stage

You will start off in a scrolling segment that scrolls up. This is the only one I've seen that does not involve an elevator. You must chase Orange's flying battleship. There will be some soldiers shooting at you. Try facing towards them, shooting and jumping. They shouldn't be much of a problem. Eventually, you will have the chance to jump onto the battleship, so do so. Then you will face the dreaded helicopter skull bombs. They explode when they touch the ground and deal 20 damage! You can throw them away, but if you're playing for the first time I suggest you just avoid them. There will also be helicopter soldiers that shoot at you, again there will be an infinite amount so you can just ignore them if you like. The battleship will then fly up as Orange does a thingie.

When the battleship comes down, Orange no longer exists for some reason. You then fight the one of a kind Heli-Phantom!!!... And all he does is a kick move that you can easily jump over. Just don't kill him when he's over the pit, otherwise you can't get the health powerup. You then blast your way through some soldiers. There are also strange circle things (Turrets?) that shoot at you. Be sure to destroy them, as they drop powerups. Move on and fight...

BOSS BATTLE: Swapping Reg
This guy doesn't swap anything. And it's body is made out of turrets. So is it's feet. You will see him jump at you and you want to get under him. While you could go under him when he jumps, but you can just go through his legs. When you are under him, he will shoot a flurry of bullets at you. Some close range weapons can destroy these bullets, (And make the Swapping Reg look like it's on fire) but if you don't have them, I just simply wouldn't worry because each bullet does one damage and the combined total is about 5. But if you are doing a no damage run, I guess you could go through the legs to get out. Remember to shoot the body and when he is on low health, he will put his feet up and shoot bullets out of there. Just go ahead and destroy it.

Move on ahead and fight some very... Strange enemies. Turrets on bendy stalks piloted by soldiers. Destroy them to get health powerups. You will then battle with Smash Daisaku, who is not the dictator, just a person of power in the empire. The american manual REALLY bends the story. And no, I did not forget about the part where you fight M. Bison, this IS the part with M. Bison. He has a vitality meter, but no warning, so I don't count him as a boss. He will jet pack around and drop bombs that DON'T deal 20 damage. That's it. Defeat him and fight...

BOSS BATTLE: Orange
It's time to fight Orange, but be sure to let him show off his muscles first! It will then be time to battle. You can throw him, but be careful as he can throw you if you aren't careful. I think we are in Soviet Russia and not in Soviet Russia at the same time. But again, don't try this if it's your first time playing. Throwing him on the plane does more damage then off the plane. Don't ask why. But you should probably try not to fall off, or you will take 20 damage. One of his other moves involves Orange grabbing on to the helicopter blades and trying to land on you. Duck and shoot to hang off the plane to dodge this. But if you go under him like that, he will proceed to... Fart on you. A blue fire fart, to be precise. Defeat him and he will fall off the plane and be on fire AT THE SAME TIME!!!! Amazing!

The plane explodes, you fall to the ground and obtain the white gem. Wait, how come we fall from hundreds of meters in the air and are completely unharmed, yet Orange over there has everything above his legs in the ground? Never mind, it's a video game.

Tune in next time for the Silly Dice Maze a.k.a the Strange Fortress a.k.a the Dice Palace.
(Professor White calls it a Silly Dice Maze, Yellow calls it a Strange Fortress and the random text calls it the Dice Palace. This place has a lot of names.)





Stage 3: Black's Stage

You will start out on the outside of the Dice Maze, which has those giant telephone structures. Attack your way through some enemies and destroy a turret thing. After some platforming, you get to another turret: This one, however, does nothing. You could ignore it if you like, but it's death is just so satisfying. Defeat a phantom and enter the dice maze.

YOU CANNOT GET AWAY!

Oh no! What will we do? Wait a minute, that's the whole point to this guide. Anyways, here you must throw a die and move spaces. There are many boss fights here. There are also item rooms and a special space before Black. I shall talk about them all. Remember, with the boss fights, it generally goes:

Blue = Easy
Yellow = Medium
Red = Hard
No Gun = Get off Curry And Rice's lawn before he kills you!

This stage is a chameleon and borrows music from other stages. Green's stage for the item rooms is really unfitting in my opinion. With all that said, let's get started.

Space 1: Valvalion

Valvalion looks like Botwoon and tries to charge into you. That's it. Kill him and he dies in a way similar to the Vulture Dragon from Gradius III except it DOESN'T kill you. (1% percent of people who read this guide get the reference. The fire stage is just cruel.)

Space 2: Item Room

Happy Item Room!

What, is the Item Room now a public holiday? Well, it does give you presents, so... Take the heart and one of the weapons if you so choose and leave. All item rooms are like this and only differ in items (one of them has TWO hearts!) and weird backgrounds so I won't give anymore descriptions. FUN FACT: In the Prototype, this room had a door which could not be entered on the left which a sign claimed to be "Heaven".

Space 3: Timeron

Timeron drops bombs on you, which have large explosions, so watch out. When the clock strikes ten, He reverses time and the explosions happen again. Beat him and he becomes a rocket ship(!!!).

Space 4: Rush and Go!

I can rush, and I can go, but the same time?! Are you crazy!? Unless you are going for a high score or are speedrunning, you should just stay where you are and not run into the balls of doom on normal and up.

Space 5: Minion Soldier

In the prototype, throwing this guy did so much more damage. He can throw you, jump on you, use an energy ball or split into fake versions of him. Not sure why people think he's so hard.

Space 6: Melon Bread

Best boss ever. Attack him and he dies. Or you can just stand there and get killed by energy balls that he takes 1 minute to spit out. That doesn't work as well though.

Space 7: That

I think this is a Street Fighter 2 car parody. Destroy that box for health first.

Space 8: Pit

I thought Pit was an angel, not some heads and a panel. Just don't get crushed, the panel which inexplicably grows and shrinks won't go to the edges of the screen.

Space 9: Rush and Go Again!

Just some hallways and soldiers. You can choose if you want to finish this or not.

Space 10: Item Room

Space 11: Just a Phantom

Space 12: Vortex Base

This thing shoots lasers at you which bounce off of the orbs. He can also move around! Get down there and fire at him.

Space 13: Curry and Rice

You chose not to get off his lawn, now you pay the ultimate price. You can't use guns, so I recommend sliding into him. You can also throw him. He can easily hurt you, however. I don't think it's possible for a no damage run of this boss. Fitting how he is on space 13.

Space 14: Abarenbou Gel

Weirdest part n the game for me. The game says it's a yellow rating of difficulty, but he really doesn't throw his bombs in the right way to actually kill you. Easy.

Space 15: Super Gondola

The designer for bosses has no idea what a gondola is. There are a bunch of turrets you need to destroy. There are a lot of them, don't stand under the fiery one. The one I'll talk about is the skull bomb dropper. It does what you imagine, but also makes holes in the floor. Hit a lever to make it go away.

Space 16: Item Room with Double the Health! ©

Space 17: The Way Back

If you land on this, you get sent to the start, but you don't have to fight any bosses again that you already beat.

Space 18: Final Space

I have no idea what soul bonus is, but hey look there's a cow!

BOSS BATTLE: Black Beat Stepper

CARE TO BET ON BLACK!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!

Wait no, that's the GBA loose sequel which I will probably never talk about.

This boss can take a beating, but takes forever to do his things, so it's okay! Whatever space he lands on, he will do a different move. What, you expect me to tell you them? I'm going o pull off a Prima Pokémon Black and White guide underwater ruins place and make you find out yourself! (I couldn't remember them.)

Beat him and he will give you the ge- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

That got me the first time. And killed me.

Beat him all you like and when you let up, he gives you the real gem.

Tune in next time for...

Hey, anyone know how to upload a picture?

Oh well. Next time, Mine cart level. We shall fight one of supernerd117's favorite bosses from any game ever. And he will step on us. And we will cry. Unless we play on Easy.

See you next time and remember to be aggressive!



This was when the walkthrough got... Forgotten prematurely. Now, however, I have returned and I'm ready to dance on the dance floor! Let's do this.



Stage 4: Green's Stage

Minecart riding time! The controls on the minecart are pretty similar to normal controls except for one thing: if you tap the jump button again in that air, you can change gravity! DOWN UPSIDE

ANyways, this level is pretty simple. It starts with you going underground, where you are attacked by a whole bunch of soldier men. A whole bunch. They are easy. BUt watch out; for there are some dangerous foes on the battlefield who shoot a bunch of skull bombs everywhere. Well, not everwhere, just a limited range. Eventually, train. Just destroy all passengers to move on.


WE'RE GOING DOWNTOWN! The shaft now leads downwards, ad is pretty much the same except for an enemy which comes up with a sort of barrier thing. Just destroy one and the hurtful barrier shall go away. Destroy sleepy men and move on.


Now, this section is basically the first, but with more enemies, and this time, once you make it to the train, you'll have to deal with multiple carts. It's the same as usual, however. Destroy the passengers of 3 carts and... Wow. I never knew M. Bison was a train driver. Now you must take out the engine. Just focus on M. Bison, as his one attack here is destructable and comes from him. Said attack is amazing: He thows soldiers at you. Beutiful.



BOSS BATTLE: Seven Force

DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNDUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUNDUN

Green appears, and apparently he's your brother or something? He's got a cool cape. And then one of the hardest bosses in the game happens.

Seven Force has Seven Forces. Or forms, whatever. He always starts out with Soldier Force, and then goes random, but in a pattern of verticle shaft force, horizontal shaft force until he is beaten. In easy, he has 3 forces, in normal 5, and in hard and expert you have to fight ALL SEVEN. So, let's get started!

Soldier Force

LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT

This guy has 2 atttacks: He can punch you, or he can throw stuff at you. The punch can be dodged by jumping at the last second, and the stuff can be dodged by changing gravity. Also don't let him collide with you. Yeah.

Urchin Force

This guy goes crashing around. He shall go onto one side and go up and down on it, occasionally switching sides. His strategy here is basically trying to make ou into roadkill. Just stay away from the summoner and you should be alright. Eventually, at 1500 HP, he will shoot easy to dodge balls. Just get out of the way, yo.

Blaster Force

IT'S A GIANT GUN. This guy has a safespot, but if you can't find it, all you really have to do is keep moving and jump alot to avoid his shots. Eventually, he has to reload, which is a good time to attack. Very simple.

Tails Force

He only has one tail. He begins to move around the battlefield. Just get out of the way. He then floats there, attacking a few times. He can use one of two attacks: a quick flurry of bullets, and swinging his spiked tail around. Hee takes a while to charge up the bullets, so just get out of the way, same thing with he tail swing. He then repeats from the start.

Tiger Force

Rawr. Stay on the ceiling, being on the gground means he can pretty much just get on top of you whenever he pleases. He will start aiming and shoot a blast at you. JUst get out of the way when the crosshair stops moving. On higher difficulties, he can shoot a big, explosive blast as well, so you gotta move quicker. Next, he will shoot a reflective laser: the laser has a preview of where it's path will be, so just don't get caught in it. Rinse and repeat.

Eagle Force

He will climb up the shaft like the bird he is. Just rush down past him when he is in a configuration where never his wing or tail is blocking your path. If he comes up at a weird horizontal angle thing, just get near his face whe his wings are flat, wait a bit, then rush past when they got flat again. Whenever he gets to the top and goes up into the air, GET DOWN, GET DOWN! He will fall and lift up his wings at the last second, so just got to the bottom as fast as you can and go back up so he doesn't get you on the way back up.

Crab Force

Gunstar Heroes is based on japanese history. Unfortunately, this crab does not have a weak point that you can attack for massive damage. In other words, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! Mr. Crab gives chase, and has 3 attacks he can use: one is an attack where he shoots out a thing that grows up: if you are on the same level as it, quickly chage gravity and go under/over it. The second attack has the crab putting down metal balls on the floor and ceiling. Just jump over them. His third attack is a bouncy ball! Boing boing. It bounces across, just go under it in a way that means it can't hit you.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb4yFR9qS3A0


The place starts blowin' up, yo. Green just flat out GIVES you the gem. You deserve it. Also his cape falls off.

Now we have all the gems a-

Great. Just great. Professor dude. Great. Anyways, the empire or whatver totally took yellow away, and you have to give them the gems if you're to rescue her. Now, why she has to be saved, I have no idea. She does literally nothing to help you other than give level descriptions which are nowhere near as helpful as this guide. Whatever. Next level.


Stage 5: Destroy Them All!


Marathon level. Just go along destroing everything. That's all you need to do for most of the level. Remember that destroing boxes gets you hearts. Watch out for phantoms. At one point there is a wall-like stack of boxes; destroying them is pretty easy, but one might all on you, so watch out. Eventually, walkers appear. They start out small, but then get BIG AND TALL. They deal 20 damage. They take only a tiny amount of damage, however, so just kill them before they kill you.


This boss makes Seven Force look like Whispy Woods.

BOSS BATTLE: Final Great Soldier

Final Great Soldier fights you with the age old technique of Love Love Dancing. Then the actual boss fight begins.

BOSS BATTLE: Smash Daisaku


It's M. Bison's last stand. DO NOT GRAB AND THOW HIM. He starts out flying like a bird! DO NOT GRAB AND THROW HIM. He acts like he did in Orange's stage, exept with a new attack where he charges up and boosts at you; just jump over it. DO NOT GRAB AND THROW HIM. If you grab him, he boosts at you at a luderick speed! DO NOT GRAB AND THROW HIM.

Then begins his second phase. He can walk towards you or walk backwards; If he walks toward you, then he can grab you upon contact and throw you, or... Jump and extend his leg at you at close range. Okay. If he walks backwards, try staying close to him, as it means he is about to use his jetpack as a gun. He only does it once he's far enough from you, and it can be difficult to dodge. Just jump over the shots when they are at their shortest vertically.

I NEVER DIE


And great work, you just beat the marathon level. Then some stuff happens. Yeah. Empire Giant Spaceship. Alright. Next is the overly long shmup level.


Stage 6: Spaaaaaaace.

The Professor guy dug up a small, speedy spaceship. Literally. He dug it up from underground.

This level is quite challenging! It plays like a shmup, such as Gradius, R-Type or Darius. You can aim while not firing and you can fire while firing. Just watch out: if you die here, you head back to the start of the shmup segment, the long LOOONG shmup segment. Fortunately, you take more than one hit, unlike many shmups.

The enemies are pretty simple, just destroy them before they hit you and wathc out for asteroids. And weird laser things that go down and are easy to dodge. At one point an indestructible asteroid snake appears; just run away and it will leave. Now to describe the bosses.

BOSS BATTLE: Timeron


HE'S BACK AGAIN AND ABOUT TIME TOO AND THIS TIME HE'S IN THE MOOD


oh wait he's dead

Just shoot him a bit and he dies. You can try surviving for 100 minutes and get a secret message, but you will probably fail, yo.



BOSS BATTLE: 1000MM Gun

DESTROY THE CORE!!! Here we have a cannon who shoots at you. If you get close, he shoots additional, smaller bullets, so stay away from the summoner. He also gets rocket launchers to assist him for a few seconds on Normal and up. For a few seconds.

Now, just before this next boss, these missiles appear. They explode into bullets, but that's not the problem: You see, they come in at a very fast speed and do 20 damage on collison. Just sit in the middle left of the screen to avoid them. And now...

BOSS BATTLE: Seven Force

The Final Assault



Great, it's this guy again. He only has one healthbar now, but uses his different forms as individual attacks!

Soldier Force just uses an easy to dodge spread of projectiles. He uses Tiger Force when you are horizontally lined up with him to dash at you! He can become Tails Force and move in a straight line, swinging his tail around. He can become Eagle Force and chase you while shooting lasers and turn into Crab Force to move around while shooting metal spheres around. He can turn into Urchin Force to sit there and shoot lasers in 8 directions and become Blaster Force to shoot at you just like he did in the earlier battle. So yeah, he has a pretty large assortment of moves, Tiger Force is probably most dangerous so try not to be lined up with him too much.

Defeat him and the shmup segment ends. You finally get a checkpoint. Now you are inside the ship and a rush of phantoms come at you, acting like regular soldiers but with more health. Also you're on the moon now. Go through a door and...


BOSS BATTLE: Core Defense System

You start out fighting the Long Arm of the Law. He can smash you. He does so in a way that if you just keep moving, he will hit you. So stand still and then move when he comes down. He can also shoot lasers at you. His most dangerous attack (And as most dangerous I mean most flashy) has him spin the room around. Just jump whenever he comes into the playing field. Destroy him and he makes a last attempt, which is just his smashing attack from before.

Now you must fight a snakey snake. He flies into your field to shoot blue flames at you, and that's it. Just dodge the flames and hit him when you can. Then the core goes crazy and shoots out a bunch of splodey things. Just avoid everything dangerous.


Now you get to fight Vectorman. He runs along swinging his arms around. He will get up close and throw and energy ball at you. It can ever go along the ground or towards the upper-left. He does so in a binary pattern: When he throws a diagonal, he will next throw a straight and vice versa. Just keep in mind he can hit you with his arm.

And now the core is destroyed. Boom.


FINAL STAGE


It's boss rush time. You have to tackle 5 bosses in a row before a checkpoint preceding the final boss. Once you get to the final boss, just kill yourself. You won't be able to win with low health.

BOSS BATTLE: Duck Battalion

Quack. It's pretty much just Pink's henchmen in a mech the mech can walk back and forth and charge. To dodge the charge, just wall jump or something. He can also duck and shoot, which can be dodged by ducking as well. He can also jump backwards and shoot, multiple times. Just get far away so it doesn't connect with you. When you destroy it, the tall guy picks up one of the guns and starts attacking. He jumps around and shoots: respond by attacking back and just generally going crazy with kicks and throws. It works.


Now, watch out for weird things. You have to hide from them by going into the alcoves, which is easy enough. Don't forget to pick up health. For the wall turrets afterwards, just keep on jumping. Jump, jump, jump.


BOSS BATTLE: Pink Lobster


Interesting battle here. If you get close, the Pink Lobster will hit you with it's claw. Dash away quickly. If it corners you, wall jump to get over it. It also has a destructible bubble attack which is easy to dodge, and even if it gets you, you can escape by mashing buttons. At low health, it will back up into a corner and spam the bubbles. Just keep on attacking to win.


Yoe can take out the turret men before they do anything to you. Easy.


BOSS BATTLE: Orange

He's back, and now he can do stuff. Orange isn't messing around this time! He can throw you and stuff like last time, but he has new attacks: these include a blast around him when he gets close to you and an upward blast when you get above him. If you are cool, you can throw him like last time, but I seriously do not reccomend it unless you are of a high skill level. Take him out, and good luck.


With that done, move on through more turret men onto elevator land.


BOSS BATTLE: Black Fly

CARE TO BET ON BLACK!?!?

So here you have to attack him before he goes up. When he does, he drops these things on you. They have energy arms which hurt you, however, you can destroy them by attacking the center part of them. At low health, Black will use an attack which involves heavy streams of large profectiles that rotate. To avoid this, move along with them and ride the elevator platforms up to him. Remember, you can stand on top of his machine. Also, don't fall of the screen. Just don't.


The elevator stops. It's time.

BOSS BATTLE: Green

I AM GREEN

Unless you have certain weapons including the almighty lightsaber, which can lock him in place by repeatedly attacking him, get ready for a crazy fight! Green likes to jump around and throw you, and you can throw him too. He can also dash at you or throw stars. For the stars, just switch platforms. Green actually isn't that hard. Maybe he just wasn't creative enough with his battle strategy.


After that,go in the door. The Shredder then attempts to use the gems against you, and fails HARD, instead getting flamed by them. Should've brought a flame shield. Now, it's time for the final boss.


HERE COMES THE CLIMAX!

FINAL BOSS: Golden Silver


The final boss is a force to be reckoned with. To damage Golden Silver,you must damage his gems: thst's the only way of draining his health. In this first phase, he can do all sorts of crazy things: grabbing and punching, dashing and punching, shooting explosives and hitting the ground to send shockwaves at you. Jump over the shockwaves, as for the others, get out of the way for the dash punch, back off the the explosive attack and just don't go near him to avoid getting grabbed. At 7500 health, the gems go near him, otherwise he stays the same. At 4000, he teleports onto his entrance pillar and uses the gems to attack you. Each gem has it's own attack: the grey gem shoots a stream of bullets you have to duck under, the green gem shoots homing explosives at you and the blue gem fires a dangerous, highly concentrated laser at you. However, by far the most powerful is the red gem's attack: The Dreaded Fire Whip. For some reason, Golden Silver adores this attack to death and uses it for a much longer period than the other attacks. The attack itself is a flaming whip/tentacle that moves around the arena left and right. To avoid it, dash under it when it is lifted off the ground. This attack does heavy damage, so watch out.


Drain his health and you have completed the game! Congratulations!

I won't spoil the ending, although it's a very confusing one that leaves alot to the imagination. I'll leave it to you to interpret it.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

And so ends this walkthrough, I hope you enjoyed it. I will probably write more guides in the future, but for now, I must say goodbye. This guide was alot of fun finishing off. And with that, I end off.





Best greetings in the next guidance!