Konami's interesting experiment: Storm Knight

In the last years of the 5th generation console’s life cycle, you saw Kuntnomey create quite a few interesting experiments: From Ronin Blade – something that had to exist first so that Crapcom’s Onimusha could still act later, to the Castlevania versions. interesting running on Nintendo64 hardware, to Hybrid Heaven, to Evil Night – a spin-off of The House Of The Dead,… All of these games are very interesting in their own way and seem like people I thought that Kuntnomey was the brightest when they weren’t even trying to be the best. Among all these games, another game that is equally interesting is Gungage – a unique experiment of Konami from its predecessor Contra…

Gameplay: Gungage is a Shoot em up – TPS game in a straight middle style, because the PS1 controller is not dual shock so it does not have an analog stick, the game is hardcoded so you have to play with the familiar Tank Controll, with Auto aim at close and moderate ranges. There is also a Platform mechanism in the game to avoid monotony. The game is not strictly a Rail Shooter title since you still have complete control in all situations. To put it squarely, at that time the Nintendo64 had both Star Fox and Sin And Punishment, this was like Konami’s answer: “Dad has the Contra trump card and this”. Don’t let the appearance fool you because Gungage is not as monotonous as its name or main screen menu, the game is not only a difficult shooting game due to its control mechanism or design but also in its price. Replay value as well as many interesting setups. At the beginning of the screen, you will start with a single character, Walke Skade -( Yes, this is the real character’s name if you’re wondering why the name rhymes and is silly), Walke has a 3-shot pistol. Round burst is quite cool with a skillset that includes freezing bullets and energy shields. The design of the resource system will be in the style of an Arcade game, that is, you pay attention to picking up as many crystals as possible as well as gems to restore energy, including picking up diamonds to accumulate points, 100 points to get Life up (more life), pick up food to heal and then pick up special items that add up to your score. There is also a system to destroy the environment, although not much since we are talking about the configuration of the PS1, finding secrets, secret walls or secret paths, etc. The level layout is quite long, one level It can take up to more than 30 minutes depending on the difficulty, length, and how you handle the Boss Fight. After completing the game for the first time with Walke, you can unlock new characters, even if not, you can still unlock them quickly by looking for their Wanted Posters scattered throughout the environment. The game’s gameplay is quite interesting. Although the platform in the game is secondary, it is extremely rewarding if you can overcome the super difficult platform chains through the game’s cramped jumping mechanism, such as placing special items that help add up to a lot of bonus points or drag. lengthens your health bar… There is a difficulty level ranging from Easy, Normal, Hard with each level not only increasing the number of enemies to confront but also making them more painful to shoot, harder to kill and can also aimbot you in the fight. many situations. Boss Fight is very high quality, challenging all the skills you learn in the game and many memorable Bosses like the Final Boss of the game is a guy claiming to be a god who is immune to all damage until you learn his weakness. he is his yellow core or the Spider Boss likes to fly and jump and has the game Death From Above, the tank Bosses are Mini Bosses but they play with you by dynamically flipping baskets, making it more difficult for you to dodge or do somersaults…

Auto-aim works smoothly, but in high combat situations, they allow you to add a quick dodge mechanism by quickly pressing the Dpad twice in one direction. When dodging, it not only gives you 0.25 seconds of invincibility, but also helps you turn around or change directions quickly in a situation where someone wants to shoot you in the back. Skills can be used anytime, anywhere and are restored when you pick up crystals, but the game still requires personal skills and self-management of these essential resources because the frequency of dropping crystals is still very unstable, the ability to If you can’t find a secret or anything, Bosses might have extra phases. After completing the game for the first time, you will unlock 2 new characters, Kard Berndysh and Steyr Harquebus – Yes, the game has its own ridiculous Western name. Steyr is one of the easiest characters in the game to play since she has a minigun that she can just hold down and fire at will. The game is even so detailed and attentive that the new characters are almost They all have different mechanisms, UI, equipment and skills and no one plays the same. Steyr moves much smoother than Walke, her dodge is also more beautiful and has less delayed action, she is also equipped with Radar to help you locate enemies and essential furniture locations – sometimes it is makes discovering secrets easier because the radar will always show everything regardless of the situation. Steyr also has 3 standard skills similar to Walke – Laser helps shoot chasing laser beams that automatically lock on targets similar to Panzer Dragoon, Steyr’s shield can deal strong damage to enemies but will be fixed and burned a lot. more energy, and the Nova move is simply a Nuke shot that looks very gentle but can make the BOSS fly half its health tank if you know how to use it. Kard Berndysh is a slow, big godfather-like general. He is not as mobile or agile as Walke or Steyr, but in return Kard’s gun is the best, does not count on special bullets other than Nuke bullets, and his skill set is only revolves around switching between firing modes from Laser, rocket chaser, flamethrower and parabolic grenade launcher. Kard’s effect is also quite nice when he has two types of Nuke: the type that shoots a giant ball and explodes, and the other is the Dragon type that has a faster firing speed. Playing with Kard can still be easier for some people to some extent if you can apply his superior firepower advantage to quickly take out all the targets on the screen before they can do so. What’s with you? The final character that can only be unlocked after you have completed all 3 main resistance characters is an artificial Synth from the imperialist faction named Dee Von Fang, Dee wields a Submachine gun with speed. Shoots slightly less than Steyr’s Minigun, but in return the damage seems to be higher. In addition, Dee has all of Steyr’s UI and Radar but with a mixed set of skills between Kard and Walke from transferring special weapon modes to to mobility… Strike Dee’s strongest one that everyone will definitely spam is the black hole of death when just a very small ball can fly through and if it touches anyone or anything it will fly away or if it’s a Boss it will fly half a bottle. blood. Although each character goes through the same campaign duration, the levels still have interesting changes in the style of an underground Zapping system that you see in the original RE2, which means: Some special paths or some rooms or chains that exist in the game screen can only be unlocked for one person and not another, which means that Items, recovery items and enemies can change and vary somewhat. songs even when they do not go beyond the level of play. At the same time, the characters all have their own storylines and personal elements, so the film’s cutscenes, introduction sequences and after credits ending are also different – very interesting.

Gungage’s plot is kept as basic as possible since this is not a game that focuses on this very much. A quick summary is that in the future when people travel further into space and search for new planets to live on, in Gungage they discover a new planet called Dark Moon. , the problem is that Dark Moon is not lonely at all, but it contains creatures and entities from outer space that come to wipe out the earth and humanity. As if it weren’t annoying and talkative enough, the authoritarian imperialist government on Earth, instead of recognizing the threat, has the idea of bringing that damn thing back to research and exploit, leading to monsters. escaped and spread, destroying the entire earth. This led to the formation of a resistance faction against both the imperial government and the alien monsters. As mentioned above, Walke, Steyr and Kard are all three warriors of this faction with the exception that Kard was a famous general and former officer of the Imperial faction but betrayed and changed sides after seeing it with his own eyes. witness the tragedies that he personally contributed to. Dee is a Synth – a bio-machine hybrid created by the Empire as a solution to prevent things from getting out of control and yes, Dee’s storyline later also includes Dee having to deal with the problem. The chaos that the government creates as well as the hidden search for freedom for oneself.