Art
Some of the game's artwork featuring Marion (top), Yuan-Nang (bottom-left) and Valnus (bottom-right).
The art in Gunbird has a high humoristic look, which is a recurrent style in Psikyo's games. As the game's characters have a Japanese manga-drawing style appearance, different kinds of resources used in these are used in the game too, for the character's expressions.
Gunbird's storyline isn't serious at all, so all visual elements in the game are built around this concept. Enemies' sprites are sci-fi-looking, because the villains of the game, The Trump, use lots of different machines when attempting to stop the player.
Gunbird's cover for the Sega Saturn version of the game.
All sprites in the game are stored here.
Each level in Gunbird has a different ambientation, as the game takes place in many different scenarios, such as the jungle, the sea, a mine, or some ruins.
This level takes place on a medieval castle which has been slightly modified by The Trump to have cannons and guns, in order to prevent the protagonist from taking the mirror piece. The boss in this level has two phases. The first one is a weird-looking building that looks like some kind of UFO, and the second phase is a flying robot that looks like a medieval knight, with an armor, a lance and a shield.
The castle level is the most colorful level, it has a lot of grey for the stone buildings and the boss' second phase, green for the grass and a darker one for the first phase of the boss, and red/brown for wood parts and rooftops or other castle parts. Also in some parts blue is used for water.
The ambientation of this level is a jungle which is full of The Trump's war machines. The scenario is very dynamic in this level because, as the player moves forward, chunks of the jungle will move to the sides and open, revealing what's behind them, which usually are enemies. This level's boss is a red, big mobile fortress armored with lots of guns, and on its second phase it will use some helixes to fly up and start moving.
In the jungle level, the main colors are green, for the trees, and brown for the ground and the wooden cottages. Also, the boss in the level has a dark orange, almost red color, which does a really good contrast with the rest of the level.
What looks like a classic European village is the scenario of this level. It's full of houses (with some bellic modifications made by The Trump), the floor is made of stone, and it has some brigdes. At the end of the level there is a train station and a railroad, where The Trump's train will appear. This train has many different phases, first, the player must fight the three ground robots of The Trump, then, the next wagon is armed with six turrets and two machine guns. The lead wagon of the train has some guns on its back part, which will keep opening and closing. Last, upon destroying the lead wagon, a big robot will eject from it and keep moving on the railroad. This robot has two guns on its "face", two cannons on each side of its chest, and two big arms with three guns each. The robot is also able to eject its weapon hands forward to shoot.
The ground and brigdes' grey, also present in the train, and pale orange and blue for the houses' roofs are the predominant colors in the village level.
The sea level takes place over aome unknown sea or ocean. During the level, the character goes over some rocks that emerge from the water, The Trump's boats, ship docks and control towers. The enemies in this level are all adapted to work on acquatic environments, for example regular Turrets have water engines in this level. The boss in this level is a big ship with many different parts and turrets. When the ship is destroyed, by eliminating the two poles, a giant pterodactyle-looking robot will eject from the ship's prow.
The colors predominating in this level are blue, because of the ocean, and grey, due to the color of the enemies and the docks.
A cave with lots of machinery is the scenario of the mine level. The level has two depth levels, one is the bottom of the cave and the other one is the bridges that work as a floor. Besides the enemies that stand on these bridges, most of the combat in this level is air-to-air. At the end of the level a big armored robot mounted on rails by the sides of the screen is found. This robot also has two machine-guns. When destroying this robot, its core will eject and start flying forward. The robot will keep swapping between the two depth levels, and leaving behind some round machines that shoot when moving to the deeper level.
The mine is the most monotonous level. The background is only a plain orange with gray tones, and most of the enemies are also orange, with the exception of Turretcopters and Rotating Turrets' grey, and the dark green of the Heavy Armored Airship.
The ruins level starts over the sea, and has great wall made with parallax, that divides the sea and the ruins. The ruins are built on a grassy terrain, and have lots of damaged structures. The level is full of pillars, some of them are regular pillars (probably the pillars of the own ruins), and the other ones have weapons built on top of them by The Trump. When the player gets to the end of the level, the ground sinks in and reveals a mayan-looking background. Then The Trump will appear, each of them mounting their own airship, and attack the player, until the Flying Totem, a big stone head with red eyes, gets into screen and sends them away. When the Flying Totem is destroyed, two smaller totems with black eyes will appear, and when they are destroyed the first totem will come back and transform into a Golden Totem.
This level is a slightly colorful one. It has blue for the sea, grey for the ruins' structure and the first three totems, green for the grass, red for the guns on the pillars, brown for the background when the ruins' floor sinks, and dark yellow for the Golden Totem. However, the tone of the colors is very similar, and with the exception of The Trump's machines, nothing really stands out from the background.
The sanctuary looks similar to the ruins in color tones, but it looks much more like a proper building, instead of some destroyed ruins. The enemies in this level have, as the boss of the ruins, an ancient, threatening look, as if they were constructed long ago to keep away everyone who wants to access the sanctuary. The first boss in this level is a big skull surrounded by fire that comes out of a stone coffin. Then the player arrives to a wall with what looks like the head of a mayan dragon, which will make a green ball appear when destroyed. The ball may then change form, and it will randomly take a form out of these:
- A big ball with an eye and a mouth.
- A robot-like creature.
- A big flying fish.
- Also a big ball, bust just with an eye and what looks like hair.
When the first phase of the boss is killed, it will morph into one of these:
- A big skull with red eyes.
- A giant, rotating, realistic-looking tanooki with a bottle of sake and an Asian rice hat.
The last phase of the boss is a big flying dragon. Some of the forms of this boss (such as the tanooki) reinforce the humoristic appeal of the game.
The color that predominates in the sanctuary is a dark green, which is the color of the walls and stones. Also, the dragon head and the phases of the morphing ball have all a more vivid, blue-ish green. Also, as an exception, the Red Flying Mine, have a red/orange color that contrasts with the rest of the level.
Atler's level is a huge building that flies through the skies. The only regular enemies in this level are the Golden Sentinels. While crossing the enormous fortress, the player will pass through six statues that can be destroyed and will all drop two Power Ups or a Bomb.
Right after the statues, The Trump will appear, all of three riding a big, red robot. First, this robot will use a sniper rifle with a wide cannon to attempt to kill the player. When the rifle is destroyed, the robot will now use a huge machine gun with three cannons per side and a scope. After the big machine gun, the robot will use some kind of square machine gun, which rests on the robot's shoulder. Finally, after the square machine gun is eliminated, the robot will use its final weapon: a machine with four guns and lots of engines, even bigger than the robot's big second weapon. Destroying this last weapon will also destroy the robot, and The Trump will snap out wielding a white flag in signal of surrender.
After the red robot, the character will get to the last part of the stone fortress, the Prism. The magic mirror will come out of the player and activate the prism, which will change its color to blue, and then to a bright, low-saturated green, start rotating, and attack the player. Upon destroying the Prism, a big hooded character will appear. The character will take off its hood and reveal himself as Atler, the Mirror Guardian. Then, Atler will tell the player that he will grant his wish, but he wants to check its strength, and the final battle of the game will start.
The final battle consists on Atler generating different structures with mystic paper, and shooting constantly. Atler creates two big spheres with spikes, a prism, and little birds.
The sky behind the building is a dark red with blue parts. The fortress is a light brown/orange color, which is the predominant one in most part of the level. The Orange Sentinels and the Red robot contrast a bit with the background, as also does the green prism. Also Atler's hood contrasts a lot with the building's color, as it's a deep blue. In the final battle, the background has a dark blue color and black in the center (as if there was no bottom), and Atler and his paper creations are of an intense yellow and a pale brown, which make them stand out from the background.
All backgrounds of the levels are stored here.
The palettes of all the levels in the game are stored here.