Design

Index

1. Characters
   • 1.1 Playable Characters
   • 1.2 Non-playable Characters
2. Narrative Structure
3. Level Analysis
   • 3.1 Enemies and Structures
     • 3.1.1 Common Enemies
     • 3.1.2 Castle level
     • 3.1.3 Jungle level
     • 3.1.4 Village level
     • 3.1.5 Sea level
     • 3.1.6 Mine level
     • 3.1.7 Ruins level
     • 3.1.8 Sanctuary level
     • 3.1.9 Atler's level
   • 3.2 Items
4. Gameplay
   • 4.1 Controls
   • 4.2 Difficulty

Characters

In Gunbird we find 9 main characters, 5 of them playable and the other 4 as bosses during the plot.

Playable Characters

Character	Name	Description
	Ash	Ash is a 28-year-old German adventurer who flies with a jetpack and uses a sci-fi style gun to shot. During his plot, the player gets to know he is in fact an inventor and, when the game is played in cooperative mode with Marion, the player also discovers he is a pedophile and has some kind of interest in her.
	Marion	Marion is a 13-year-old English witch who travels with her rabbit pet Pomme-Pomme. Her goal is to become an adult because witches are more powerful when they're adults. She is shown at some moments as selfish, frequently abusing her pet verbally and physically.
	Yuan Nang	Yuan Nang is a strong-willed and courageous warrior girl inspired by the Chinese character Sun Wukong from the old Chinese tale "Journey to the West". She is not really interested in any wish, but to fight strong monsters and destroy things.
	Tetsu	Tetsu is an old martial artist that flies using a flying machine with pedals. He is the only homosexual character in the game and is in search of the wishing mirror to resurrect his dead lover.
	Valnus	Valnus is a heavily armored robot that works for the Communist Russia government. He secretely wishes to be a human so that he would not have to follow orders from his overlords.

Non-playable characters

Character	Name	Description
	The Trump	The Trump is a group of three sky pirates who act as recurrent bosses during the the story, trying to stop the player using increasingly elaborated robot designs. The group consists of Ace (short, brown-haired boy), Claude (big guy) and their boss, the white-haired woman known as "The Boss".
	Atler	Atler is the Wishing Mirror Guardian and the final boss of Gunbird. He uses a spellbook and grants people's wishes quite literally.

Narrative Structure

Visual graph of the narrative structure in Gunbird

The game follows the same structure for all the characters, only varying the endings for each one of them. There are two general endings: the Good one, achieved when the player defeats the final boss, and the Bad one, which only occurs when the player is defeated by him.

In the 1-player version, each character has two different endings, one for each wish.

Character	First Wish	Second Wish
Marion	To become the greatest magician ever	While Marion is unconscious, Pomme-Pomme tells his wish: to become the king of the universe
Ash	He wishes to have the greatest head in the world. To satisfy his wish, Atler changes his hair into strange hair shapes	A Glamorous woman with long hair. Atler transforms himself into a woman.
Tetsu	To bring back to life his young lover, who died 40 years ago	To have a younger body again
Valnus	To make his country, Russia, the greatest country in the world	To become human
Yuan Nang	She laughs at Atler for its weakness and decides to make him her follower and apprentice.	She Kills Atler and becomes the mirror guardian

In the 2-players version, all the endings are changed, as only the wish of one of the players can be granted by the Mirror Guardian.

Characters	Ending
Marion-Ash	Marion's wish is fulfilled. She wishes to grow up because she thinks this way Ash will like her more, but, when she has already grown up, Ash refuses her saying he "is not interested in older woman"
Marion-Tetsu	Marion and Tetsu are arguing about who's whish will be granted. While they are arguing, The Trump sneakes out and wishes the strongest robot in the world. They conquer the world in three hours but, thirty minutes later, they run out of battery
Marion-Valnus	Valnus thinks Marion is going to wish something about her family, but instead, she wishes to conquer the world
Marion-Yuan Nang	Marion and Yuan argue about the wish. Pomme-Pomme, who is watching them arguing, wishes they would stop arguing. Atler concedes his wish
Ash-Yuan Nang	They both think about a wish. Atler asks someone for a wish but they want "to think for a while". Atler interprets it as their wish
Ash-Tetsu	Tetsu wants a handsome boyfriend, while Ash wants a space rocket. Atler makes a handsome rocket space boy
Ash-Valnus	They become great adventurers in the universe
Tetsu-Yuan Nang	They become inmortals and, at some point (when the earth has already been destroyed) they get bored of it
Tetsu-Valnus	Tetsu wishes to transform Valnus into a human (expecting him to be handsome)
Valnus-Yuan Nang	Yuan wishes to be the strongest person in the world and, after that, hits Valnus

Level Analysis

Enemies and Structures

Common Enemies

List of enemies that appear in more than one level.

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Trump Airship	19	500	Shoots four bullets at fixed points. Only moves forward at steady pace, and stops twice for a second. Appears in: Mine, Castle, Village, Sea and Jungle.
	Heavy Armored Robot	87	4,000	Shoots 4 bullets evey time. Two aim at your left and two at your right. Appears in: Castle, Village and Jungle.
	Rotating Turret	2	500	Always aims at you. Shoots at your position one single bullet. Appears in Mine, Castle, Village and Sea.
	Red Bomb	1	200	Moves in fixed paths. Doesn't shoot. Appears in Mine, Castle, Village and Sea.
	Turretcopter	1	200	Shoots directly towards you. Appears in Mine, Castle and Jungle
	Claude's Ground Robot	89	6,000	Two diferent patterns. Doble forward shot and double multi-diectional shot. Appears in Castle and Jungle.
	Ace's Ground Robot	92	6,000	Two different patterns. two double shots, and four double shots followed by two triple shots. Appears in Village and Jungle.
	Claude's Airship	92	5,000	Two different patterns. two multi-directional shots, and two tri-directional shots. Appears in Sea and Village.
	"The Boss" Ground Robot	92	6,000	Two different patterns. Two double shots, and a faster single double shot. Appears in Village and Jungle.
	Flying Gunner Robot	8	400	Shoots one bullet aiming at you. Appears in Village and Sea.

Castle level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Castle Mortar	20	4,000	Multi-directional attack. Shoots twice.
	Castle Structure 1	10	3,000	Structure.
	Castle Turret	20	1,000	Shoots two bullets at steady pace.
	Castle Structure 2	25	3,000	Structure.
	Vase	12	0	Structure. Only gives Coins.
	Boss: Robot Knight (Phase 1)	396	0	Three different patterns. Steady multi-bullet shots aimed at you, full round multi-bullet shots, steady tri-directional shots.
	Boss: Robot Knight (Phase 2)	347	25,000	Tri-directional lance attack, multi-directional shield attack, and multi-directional helmet attack.

Jungle level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Beecopter	1	200	Diagonal movements, one-bullet shots.
	Jungle Cottage	10	200	Structure that covers things.
	Red Machine Gun	15	400	Multiple double shots.
	Mounted MiniTurret	5	200	Simple shots.
	Flying Cannon Robot	6	500	Shoots one bullet forward, backward and sideways.
	Boss Part: Fortress "Feet"	70	2,000	Shoots two bullets twice and one bullet twice.
	Boss Part: Fortress Side Guns	25	1,000	Multiple double shots.
	Boss: Flying Fortress (Phase 1)	90	0	Multiple tri-directional attack.
	Boss Part: Fortress Turrets	80	1,000	Multi-directional shots.
	Boss Part: Fortress Auxiliary Engine	24	2,000	Doesn't shoot.
	Boss: Flying Fortress (Phase 2)	245	15,000	Two different patterns. Fast single bullet shot, and five Penta-directonal shots.

Village Level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Window Cannon	5	200	Doesn't aim at you. Shoots bullets in both diagonals at steady pace.
	Chimney Cannon	10	200	Shoot aiming both your left and right.
	Rooftop Cannon	10	200	Shoots twice at you.
	The Trump Robot Trio	116 each	6,000 each	Same patterns as when found alone but with more health.
	Train Turret	30	600	Each shoots twice towards you.
	Train Machine Gun	23	400	Constantly shoots aiming at you.
	Machine Gun Wagon	150	1,000	Each shoots towards you.
	Boss Part: Railbot Arms	77	2,000	Moves forward to shoot in all directions.
	Boss: Railbot	300	10,000	Multiple patterns interleaved. Constant two-bullet shots, constant two and three bullet shots.

Sea level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Aquatic Rotating Turret	2	500	Same as Rotating Turret but moves across the sea.
	Turret Tower	48	2,000	Same attack pattern as current Turrets (see in Common Enemies).
	Trump Boat	60	1,000	Two different patterns. multi-dimesional attack, and aimed four-shot burst.
	Dock Turret	15	400	Simple aimed shot.
	Dock Building	55	800	Structure.
	Ace's Airship	92	5,400	Two patterns. Constant triple shot, and fast single shot.
	Ship Turret	30	800	Same as Train Turret and Castle Turret.
	Ship Cannon	28	2,000	Simple big shot.
	Ship Shooting Pole	165	5,000	Diverse multi-directional shots.
	Ship Main Turret	275	10,000	fixed steady multidirectional shots.
	Boss Part: Pterodactile Wing	160	4,000	Multiple bi-directional double shots.
	Boss: Pterodactile Robot	373	10,000	Aimed double shots.

Mine Level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Rail Tank	50	5,000	Constanly shoots two bullets at you.
	Oil Tank	19	1,000	Structure. Contains Coins.
	Heavy Armored Airship	90	5,000	Two different patterns. Double shoot forward and multi-directional shoot.
	Boss Part: Robot Machineguns	40	2,000	Steady one-bullet shots.
	Boss Part: Robot Shoulders	118	3,000	Two patterns. Same attack pattern as Robot Machineguns, and seldom two-bullet shots.
	Boss: Rail Armored Robot	298	8,000	Faster then the other part's individual bullet shots.
	Boss: Flying Core	469	15,000	Two different patterns. Multi-directional attack, and two forward bullets. Also creates Boss Part: Flying Bomb.
	Boss Part: Flying Bomb	4	500	Fast and constant linear bullets towards you.

Ruins level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Pilar Machinegun	10	1,000	Steady two-sullet shots.
	Temple Pilar	18	800	Structure.
	Midboss: Claude's Airship	Unknown*	5,000	Doesn't shoot by itself, uses its turrets.
	Midboss: Ace's Airship	Unknown*	5,000	Doesn't shoot by itself, uses its turrets.
	Midboss: The Boss' Airship	Unknown*	5,000	Doesn't shoot by itself, uses its turrets.
	The Trump Trio turrets	40	1,000	Two different patterns. double penta-directional shot, and double multi-directional shots.
	Midboss Part: The Boss' Red Rocket	Unknown*	Unknown*	Steady multi-directional shots.
	Boss: Flying Totem 1	294	10,000	Two attack patterns. constant single-bullet shots, and double multi-directional shots.
	Boss: Twin Small Totems	270	7,000	Two attack patterns each. constant single-bullet shots, and triple multi-directional shots.
	Boss: Golden Flying Totem	350	10,000	Three attack patterns. eight triple-shots, constant triple-shots, and shots four flying rotating cubes.
	Boss Part: Totem Cubes	20	500

Sanctuary level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Self Defense Weak Pilars	8	1,000	Steady single-bullet shots.
	Midboss 1: Self Defense Pilars	211	2,000	Several attack patterns. sigle steady shots, multi-directional shots, double multi-directional shots, fast double attack, and simultany multidirectional and double aimed shots.
	Red Flying Mines	10	800	Steady single shots, when killed, multi-directional shots.
	Shooting Wall			Two tri-directional shots.
	Midboss 2 Part: Pilar	33	2,000	Two patterns. Single aimed shot, and qudra-directional shot.
	Midboss 2 Coffin	60	0	Structure.
	Midboss 2 Second Form	137	8,000	Steady pattern of two tri-directional shots, two bi-directional shots and two quadra-directional shots.
	Midboss 2 Part: Flying Blue Orbs	2	300	Single aimed shot. All shoot at the same time.
	Ground Shooting Thing	12	800	Single bullet shot.
	Mayan Dragon Head	305	6,000	Steady tri and quadra-directional shots.
	Boss Phase 1: Fish form	200	7,900	Three tri and bi-directional shots. Also summons spheres that shot in cross.
	Boss Phase 1: Knight form	230	5,000	Two different patterns. Three multi-directional shots, and multiple three-bullet bursts. Also summons two minions that shot double shots in all directions.
	Boss Phase 1: Hairy sphere	180	10,000	Two different patterns. A tri and a bi-directional shots, or three shots, a tri a quadra and another three-directional shot.
	Boss Phase 1: Morphic Omunculus form	164	6,000	Two different patterns. multiple tri-directional shots, and two multi-directional shots. Also summons spheres that shots at you, three at a time.
	Boss Phase 2: Giant Skull form	340	6,000	Two different patterns. multiple forward shots, twice at a time, and four multi-directional shots. Also summons small skull that can shot steady tri-directional shots.
	Boss Phase 2: Tanookie form	340	12,000	Shots two multi-directional shots. Also summons five spheres that he shots steadily at you, one at a time.
	Boss Final Phase: Dragon form	610	10,000	Steadily shot two quadra-directional shots and two tri-directional shots.

Atler's level

Image	Name	HitPoints	Score	Description
	Golden Centinel	4	500	Steady triple attack.
	Sarcophagus	78	2,000	Structure.
	Midboss: The Trump Final Robot Phase 1	60	5,000	Constant tri-directional shots to all directions.
	Midboss: The Trump Final Robot Phase 2	125	5,000	A five-burst shot of one two, three, two then one bullets.
	Midboss: The Trump Final Robot Phase 3	130	5,000	Constant two-bullet bursts.
	Midboss Part: The Trump Final Robot Phase 3 Machine Gun	40	500	Constant three-bullet bursts.
	Midboss: The Trump Final Robot Phase 4	125	5,000	Constant multi-directional shot.
	Midboss: The Trump Final Robot Phase 5	220	20,000	Steady multi-directional shot.
	Midboss Part: The Trump Final Robot Phase 5 Mini Helicopters	5	500	Steady forward bursts.
	Midboss Part: The Trump Final Robot Phase 5 Arm	100	800	Steady forward bursts.
	Midboss Part: The Trump Final Robot Phase 5 Gun	40	500	Steady tri-directional shots.
	Midboss: Seal	356	10,000	Two attack patterns. Constant all-rounded shots, and triple penta-diectional shots.
	Final Boss: Atler, the Mirror Guardian	1,200	32,000	Several attack patterns. 4 Multi-directional shots, 6 multi-directional shots, double multi-directional shots. Also summons a giant pilar that shots a tri-directional shot, two giant spiky balls that move through the screen and 5 small fairies that shot a two-bullet shot.

*In this case, this Midboss is defeated by the following Midboss before it is possible to calculate their Hitpoints in an accurate way.

Items

Image	Name	Description
	Power Up	Power Ups will upgrade the character's attack someway. If the player has already the maximum amount of power ups, they will instead award 2,000 score points.
	Bomb	Bombs can be taken by the player and be used later to fire a powerful attack. If the player has already the maximum amount of bombs, they will instead award 10,000 score points.
	Coins	Coins will appear when destroying some parts of the scenario. Taking them awards 200 score points to the player.

Gameplay

The player plays the game using 3 mechanics: moving, shooting and firing bombs. The character's movement is 8-directional, which means that it's restricted to moving up, down, left, right, and diagonally.

The game has eight levels: Mine, Jungle, Castle, Village, Sea, Ruins, Sanctuary and Atler. From those eight, the player can only play seven levels per run. The first four levels of the game will be randomly chosen from Mine, Jungle, Castle, Village and Sea. After completing the first four levels, the fifth one will be skipped, and the player will instead access the Ruins, then the Sanctuary, and finally Atler's level, where the final battle of the game will take place.

When playing a level, the camera will move forward (or diagonally in some parts of the Sea and the Ruins) automatically, so the player can't control it. As the character proceeds through the level, many enemies of different kinds will appear and attack the player. Each enemy needs to be hit a certain amount of times to be destroyed, and killing an enemy will achieve score points to the player, which can be seen in the Game HUD, and are different for each enemy. Also, there are parts of the scenario that aren't harmful, will achieve score points, and will reveal something hidden behind them, like more enemies, or coins, or drop a pickup (Bombs or Power Ups). At the end of each level there is a boss, a big enemy which usually has more than one part and is harder than regular enemies. Bosses always appear at the end of levels, but in the last three levels of the game (Ruins, Sanctuary and Atler) there are other bosses before the end, being Atler's level the one with the greatest amount of bosses (3 in total). If the player isn't able to kill a boss before a specific time limit, it will automatically be destroyed, and it won't score any points to the player. If the character gets hit by a bullet, it dies, but it won't die if it collides with an enemy. However, if the character collides with a boss, it will die anyways (to prevent the player from dodging easily some attacks). Also, when colliding with enemies, the player will lose a Power Up level.

When the player hits the shoot button once, a 4-shot barrage is fired. If the button is repeatedly pressed, shot barrages will connect and the character will shoot constantly. Also, if the shoot button is pressed for some seconds, the character will charge up, and perform a powerful attack upon button release, that deals much more damage than single hits. During the levels, enemies or other destroyable structures (like cottages, castle parts, pillars, statues...) may drop PowerUps. These PowerUps will be taken by the player if he touches them, and will upgrade the character's main shooting (but the charged shot stays the same). At 3 PowerUps taken, the character will get to its maximum shooting power, and if more PowerUps are taken they will give 2,000 score points instead.

Also, if the player hits the bomb button, all enemy-fired projectiles that are currently in screen will be eliminated, and a powerful attack will be unleashed by the character, which will deal massive damage to any enemy it hits. Unlike regular shots, the player can't keep using bombs repeatedly. First, because there is some delay needed between each bomb use, and second because bombs are limited, and the player needs to collect them through the level (just like Power Ups). As Power Ups, when the player has the maximum amount of bombs, six, subsequent bombs will not be taken, and give 10,000 score points to the player.

Each of the five main characters of the game has a unique shooting and bombing animations and mechanics.

Character	Shot	Charged Shot	Bomb
Ash	0 PwUps: Fires 2 green lasers. 1 PwUp: Fires 3 green lasers instead. 2 Pwups: Now fires 4 lasers at once, and for each 2 shots he will fire a shockwave from each of his shoulders (each shockwave acts as a singular projectile). MaxPower: Ash shoots 6 lasers now. Also, the shockwave's fire rate and size are increased, dealing more damage.	Ash's charged attack is a white, large energy shot, that will scatter into nine smaller shots upon contact with an enemy. As the scattered shots will instantly hit the enemy that the big shot did hit, it's hard to see them, and the player may only notice the 2 shots that go left and right.	Ash drops a bomb (which is the only bomb in the game that resembles the actual bomb icon in the HUD) to the ground, which after a short delay will make a large, circular explosion, dealing damage to all enemies in the area of effect
Marion	0 PwUps: Fires a blue magic beam. 1 PwUp: Fires 2 magic beams per shot. 2 Pwups: Fires 3 beams, one goes up, one goes top-left and the last one goes top-right. She also now shoots 2 magic stars that will aim automatically at the closest enemy and hit them. MaxPower: Each of the 3 beams becomes a 2-beam shot like at 1 PowerUp, and shoots 6 stars instead	Marion shoots forward her rabbit Pomme-Pomme, surrounded by magic power	Marion's bomb shoots magic waves twice in each of the 8 directions
Valnus	0 PwUps: Fires 4 beams. 1 PwUp: The beams get larger and deal more damage. 2 Pwups: Now 6 beams are fired instead, and also Valnus will shoot a green laser from each of his shoulders. This laser will hit all enemies in a straight line. MaxPower: The beams get even larger and deal more damage, and Valnus will shoot two lasers from each shoulder.	Valnus ejects his fist forward in mid-range, dealing a very high amount of damage to any enemy it hits (Valnus shouts "Rocket Punch!" when using this attack, so that may be its name).	Valnus' bomb are 4-directional lasers, which work just like the ones he fires from his shoulders, but dealing much more damage
Yuan-Nang	0 PwUps: Fires two energy beams. 1 PwUp: Fires now 3 beams. 2 Pwups: Fires 4 beams, and also creates two energy swords, one at each side of the character, that go forward and hits several enemies. MaxPower: Fires 6 beams, and generates swords more quickly.	When Yuan-Nang charges her shot, she starts to rotate her rod, and when released, she attacks extending it in front of her	Yuan-Nang's bomb creates multiple copies of herself that swipe the screen from top to bottom, stopping when they collide with an enemy, dealing damage to it. If the copy isn't able to leave the screen naturally (by eliminating all enemies in its path), it will disappear after some seconds.
Tetsu	0 PwUps: Shoots a bullet from each of his flying-bike's machine gun's (one at each side). 1 PwUp: Each machine gun shoots now 2 bullets, for a total of 4. 2 PwUps: Each machine gun shots now 4 bullets, and Tetsu's flying-bike also shooots 2 missiles in a straight line in front of him, which will explode upon contact with an enemy. MaxPower: At max power, each of the machine guns shoots 5 bullets, for a total of 10, and the missiles' fire rate is doubled	Tetsu's charged attack fires a barrage of 16 missiles, which will act as the missiles fired when at Max Power	When firing a bomb, Tetsu will drop two explosive barrels to the ground, that will create a line of fire that will advance forward until going out of the screen

Note: When firing more than one projectile, they count as one only projectile. So, for instance, Marion's double shot when having one power up will count as one projectile, or all of Valnus' shots.

When defeating Atler, a dialogue between the character/s and the Mirror Guardian will take place, and if there is only one player, he/she must choose between two options, which will trigger each of the character's endings.

Controls

The Gunbird arcade cabinet has a stick and 3 buttons for each player. The stick controls the movement of the character, as usual in shoot 'em ups. The "FIRE" button, in red, fires the character's main shot, "BOMB" button, in yellow, fires a bomb if the player has any, and the white button, "START", is used to start the game and to skip cutscenes. If player one is currently playing, player two can hit his "START" button to enter the game, if there are any coins left.

In the Sega Saturn version, the player moves the character with the controller's D-Pad, fires with "A" and uses the bomb with "B". The "START" button is the own START button of the controller. In the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 versions, the player moves the character either with the D-Pad or with the left stick of the Dualshock controller, fires with "X", uses the bomb with "◻". As in the Saturn, start buttons are the same.

Difficulty

The difficulty of the games at the arcades is set to be nearly impossible to complete without using more money. Within that category gunbird difficulty is in the upper part of the spectrum. The game is meant to be hard even for two players playing simulaneously so its made to be larger than others similar to it.
All the bullets in the game kill you with one hit, enemies can drop bombs when they are killed so you can use more than two per game, and once you beat the full game, before reaching the end you must replay it again with harder attack patterns and more enemies.

The four first levels have an increasing difficulty, meaning if you play Sea level the first one it will be easier than playing it the fourth one.