FGC #674 Gunbird 2

Let’s talk about the nitty-gritty of games preservation and gay sex.

Oh, and trigger warning: today’s game involves jokes at the expense of homophobia and the implication of rape. To be clear, the game’s writers are making those jokes, not this blog’s writer. So, without further ado…

Today’s game is Gunbird 2. Gunbird (1) was one of the first shoot ‘em ups released by Psikyo, and between the release of Gunbird in 1994 and Gunbird 2 in 1998, Psikyo had somehow dropped 26,623 shoot ‘em ups. It’s what they did! And they did it well! Gunbird 2 is a great vertical shoot ‘em up, with colorful graphics, tough-but-fair bullet-hell gameplay, and a special appearance by the Doronbo Gang for some reason. Speaking of Yatterman villains, Gunbird 2 is supposed to be a funny shoot ‘em up game (like Parodious), so there are jokes and gags interspersed with the deadly gameplay. It is a fun time all around, and, given how the difficulty appears to be carefully calibrated so you will survive the first handful of stages, it would be a decent use of a quarter if you wanted a break from contemporaries Marvel vs. Capcom or The King of Fighters ’97.

Though that does bring us to our first point: if you live in America, you likely have never seen a Gunbird 2 arcade cabinet. Gunbird 2 comes complete with a full English translation. It is a shoot ‘em up, so the text is not essential, but it is also where the personality of this game shines through. It would be a loss to be forced to play this game blindly fumbling at what is going on. However, despite this boon for American audiences, Gunbird 2 is remembered as a Japanese-exclusive arcade title. It may have made its way across the Pacific, but likely only ever in arcades that also featured Melty Blood or Rabbit (look it up!). And that is a shame! 1998 may have still been the age of fighting game dominance in your local arcade, but a fun shoot ‘em up in the vein of 1942 would have been welcome. We needed more co-op arcade games than the beat ‘em ups! But shoot ‘em ups were simply not as popular in American arcades, so that is likely why we never saw Gunbird 2.

Or maybe it was the whole gay thing.

Gunbird 2 is a shoot ‘em up with multiple characters available. They all have different traits, like speed variations or unique melee/bomb attacks, but the first thing a player will notice is a variety of character designs and personality. The Mario of the franchise is Marion (wait… was that deliberate?), a witch cursed with eternal youth. Next we have Alucard the vampire, who is the typical white-haired anime pretty boy of the era. Valpiro is a bulky robot with heavy armaments, and Tavia is the prodigy girl with more technical attacks. Rounding out the default cast is Hei-Cob, an Arabian round boi piloting a magic carpet that allows for slow movements with an emphasis on his excellent charge attack. And our secret, hidden character is Aine, the fastest pilot who also happens to be a guest character from Sengoku Ace/Samurai Aces, a separate Psikyo shoot ‘em up based on a fantasy Sengoku period. As such, Aine is anachronistic here in the realistic(ish) modern setting of Gunbird 2, and attacks with a bow and sword while wearing only hakama (samurai pants). He’s half-naked! And the fact that his bomb transforms all bullets into roses while he twirls around… Well… This does come off as some kind of vague, 90’s homophobia humor (“humor”).

So what is the deal with Aine? Aine is one of the most powerful characters in his home game, as he has a bomb attack that can completely obliterate bosses in two hits. His speed is average, but his power is amazing, so he is highly recommended across the board as the best character for newbies and experts alike. And as far as personality, there is at least one ending where he is nearly married to a woman, but she chooses a different (statue of a) man. Incidentally, he also attempts to have a conversation with a dog in another ending. In only one ending is Aine/“Flush” (localizations are hard) and Monk Tengai become “bros” and conquer the world with the aid of a bunch of muscled men in speedos. That is… a little weird, but it’s not like Zangief had a more serious ending/more clothing.

And then Aine scoots over to Gunbird 2, and he has sex with the entire male cast.

Gunbird 2 is a shoot ‘em up with unique endings for every character. For instance, here is the ending for Hei-Cob…

As you can see, his ending presents the silly situation that he wants the whole world to be fat, and there you go. Even the statue gets fat! Cute! Most of the endings are like this, with either someone wishing for something ridiculous, or their wish has some comical monkey’s paw side effect (or both, in the case of the vampire that wishes for cool hair and gets an incongruous afro). And Aine has two endings, both focused on an unidentified woman…

Sengoku Ace seems to portray this woman as his sister, though the ending where he hallucinates two of her may give a player the impression he is excited about some manner of (heterosexual) ménage à trois. However, any and all heterosexual undertones are dispatched in Aino’s 2-player endings, as he manages to bed every male available. Some characters are even invented just so he can squeeze some homosexual lovin’ into his endings!

Here, for instance, is Aino’s ending with Alucard, the pretty-boy vampire.

There is no debate that homosexual sex occurs in this ending. The only consideration available is whether any of these endings involve straight-up rape. And you can certainly argue that! Alucard’s ending above seems to state that Alucard offered sex to get what he wanted, but other endings include Aine going into Happosai dirty old man-mode, and possibly tackling his target against their will. It is disputable how much consent is going on there, but the fact that all the men wind up crying when they are in bed with Aino is not a great sign.

But, one way or another, it happened. There was gay sex in the arcade in 1998.

… Maybe

We already examined how, despite a complete translation, it was unlikely that Gunbird 2 was appearing in any American arcades. And an additional barrier to seeing these endings anywhere? Aine was a “secret” character in the most crucial of ways: Aino could not be unlocked through gameplay or a specific, Akuma-esque sequence on the character select screen. No, Aino had to be unlocked by a secret code via the cabinet’s debug menu. The guy with the keys to the arcade (or at least the cabinets) had to actively enter the service menu for Gunbird 2, go to the “Maintenance Code” section, enter a secret code sequence (51024, if you are curious), and then a player could select Aine by pressing down over the random select square. Additionally, there was a separate code (53765) which would allow a player to select Aine, but only through random select. So basically someone could blow a quarter on maybe getting the one gay character in the cast. Gunbird 2: the original gacha!

So, to summarize, we have a character with confirmed “gay endings”. But said gay endings can only be found if an arcade manager deigns to allow the character to be selectable in the first place, and then the endings are only showcased if two people are playing the game simultaneously. But if all those stars align, you’ve got a big, gay ending right there next to Star Wars Trilogy Arcade! Eat your heart out, Glup Shitto!

Now I know what you’re thinking: if all this crazy nonsense was going on at the arcade, did Gunbird 2 ever get a home port? And I’m glad you asked! Because I own Gunbird 2 for Sega Dreamcast, and…

… I guess we’re not going to play that today.

But we can play the Switch version! Which was released in 2018, with (presumably) the same port appearing on the Playstation 4/Xbox One in 2022. And the ports are simultaneously faithful and censored.

Let’s address the good: Gunbird 2 is a faithful port with a few visual upgrades that, one way or another, do not impact the game in significant ways. For instance, you have a variety of choices in frames, CRTV filters, and old/new fonts. Gunbird 2 is a vertical shooter, and you have options for screen orientation, but the port does not attempt to default skew the play area or modify the margins like a bad Blu-ray of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You have options, but even if you are a malcontent that likes playing the game horizontal and stretched to maximum dimensions, at least the game starts with something similar to its original, 20-year-old form. You will easily understand the original intent.

And there is an extra special, important preservation bonus! As frequent readers know, I often lament that I rarely play two-player games with a second player, as so many genres are outside the usual purview of a guest. I can get a buddy to try a new fighting game or Smash Bros. without fail, but convincing someone to try the latest Contra or a 1998 shoot ‘em up is not going to happen. Hell, I am a lot more likely to have a foursome handy, and play the latest Mario Party-alike. Ain’t nobody going to sit around and wait for two of us to finish a run of Gunbird 2. But modern Gunbird 2 has a solution! The console ports have a faux two-player mode available where one player can switch between two different characters. This allows you to try two different playstyles in one run-through, and see/experience the 2-player exclusive dialogue/endings. Hooray for actually being able to encounter a complete game that has now accounted for the fact that your gaming room might contain less people than a 90’s arcade!

Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Aino is now freely available and “unlocked” like he would be by a generous arcade operator in ’98, but his endings…

Are censored. The text is still there, so you can imagine what is going on, but the images are dropped.

There could be multiple reasons for this! There are games out there with implied sex and “partial nudity” that maintain a T for Teen rating (oddly enough, Odin Sphere comes immediately to mind), but it is possible the circumstances of Aino’s endings would warrant an unwelcome M for Mature rating. It sucks, but this kind of thing has been slapped on homosexual content before, and maybe City Connection (also publishers of Elevator Action Returns and Pinball Quest on Switch) did not want to deal with that nonsense. But there is also the “is it rape?” factor, and that perhaps warrants a warning or other concession for a player that does not want to see this silly, “bubblegum” adventure with an anthropomorphic rabbit boy being sexually assaulted. It brings a weird vibe to the proceedings! Whatever the reason, though, the end result is the same: Aino’s endings are censored.

And that is a shame for videogame preservation. There is a weird belief in gamer communities that “gay” did not exist as a concept in videogames until, like, The Last of Us. Or at least Mass Effect! But homosexuality has been around for players practically as long as gaming has existed (particularly if you know the original story of Pong is that the two paddles are fighting over their adopted child). Even on Nintendo systems! Great Greed for the Nintendo Gameboy included an ending where your male protagonist could choose to marry any of the five princesses… or the king himself. It is not exactly explored as a concept, but you want to flirt with the crown, you go getcha some! And while Aida’s sexuality is 100% played for laughs in Gunbird 2, it is there. There is no debating Aida is gay (or at least bi) in his arcade appearance. But you can dispute it once the ending is censored. Now there is ambiguity in what Aida is up to when he isn’t piloting, and his sexuality is erased from history.

What’s the solution here? Well, SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos recently dropped on Nintendo Switch, and that got a T for Teen Rating, included its funny rape monster, and got by with a limited disclaimer at boot up that professes “it was a different time”. That could work! Or maybe even just a disclaimer for Gunbird 2 that this game has been modified from its original form, and inquisitive players can search up the real history at their leisure. It is like an online treasure hunt! Point is that Gunbird 2 had some surprising content for its original release time/location (Little Jimmy could be going to an arcade right now! If they still existed!), and erasing it entirely without even a mention that something was changed is misleading.

Gunbird 2 has a significant place in gaming history. It may not be a respectable place in gaming history, but it exists. And releasing the game without any notification of this censorship is wrong.

FGC #674 Gunbird 2

• System: It started in the arcades, moved to Dreamcast (where I can’t play the damn thing), 2016 saw a mobile port, and then we got Switch, Windows, and Playstation 4/Xbox One in time. There was also a Japanese/European Gunbird Special Edition Compilation on Playstation 2 back in 2005. There was also also supposed to be a PSP version, but I am going to go ahead and say that is never materializing.
• Number of players: Two, which is important for reasons that have already been mentioned.
• Port-o-Call: The Dreamcast version was published by Capcom, so Darkstalkers’ Morrigan got to be an additional playable character. It is kind of remarkable that a friggen succubus squeezed into this cast, but the sexy times I spent all day examining did not involve her at all.
• New Game Plus: Gunbird 2 has two “loops”, and the second loop is a goddamned gauntlet of death that will leave you crying on the pavement. Also, for better or worse, the second loop drops all dialogue and story bits, so it is just pure, shoot ‘em up action. Consider it speed-run mode!
• Don’t Get Tricked: Every loop launches with three out of four randomly chosen stages, with the second loop starting with whatever stage you missed the first time. So maybe you’ll be bamboozled and think there are all-new levels for the second loop. Nope! Just the one! Hooray for confusion!
• Favorite Character: For raw, offensive might, I like Valpiro, the communist robot. He shoots out buzzsaws! For general personality, I prefer Marion. Yes, she is the inexplicable “loli” character of the cast that harkens forward to many a Fire Emblem or Legend of Zelda, but she is also unquestionably a jerk to the point that even her rabbit thinks she should mellow out a bit. I can respect that.
• For the Sequel: Marion would return for GUNBARICH, a cartoony, shoot ‘em up-esque take on Breakout. I… think. I’m not going to shell out eight whole American dollars to actually play that on my Switch. It looks like that thing I said, though!
• Did you know? The final boss is a cartoon elephant that guards the “magical medicine” that is the goal of all your protagonists. In addition to guarding the medicine, he launches malevolent pills as bullets. And apparently this all ties to the fact that he is an obvious parody of Sato-chan, the mascot of a Japanese company Sato Pharmaceuticals. For American audiences, this would be like if Ronald McDonald was the final boss of a Deadpool game. Or Cool Spot. He should be in more games.
• Would I play again: Sure! It’s a fun shoot ‘em up, and I can do that whole thing where I try to beat my high scores like I care about such nonsense. It’s something to do! The Nintendo Switch is crowded with a lot of entertaining games, but I can find some time for a compromised port of Gunbird 2 again.

What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Braid, Anniversary Edition! Do your hair up all pretty, and then rewind time so you get it just right! Or don’t! Just look forward to it!