Gun-Nac (Nintendo, 1991)

Gun Nac is a classic 8-bit space ship shoot'em up from the people who love their shooters, Compile, a developer of Japan. Compile's long legacy of shoot'em up really reflects their experience and pride in their work. Gun Nac is just one of their crowning works on the 8-bit Nintendo.

Gun Nac is well known for it's cheerful, light hearted music, it's fast pace and it's wacky story which all combines to create a fresh shooter. The story goes that the planet was taken over by all it's manufactured goods which were brought to life. So while flying your space ship listening to the fun and chipper music, you'll be shooting down giant pencils, lighters, stuffed rabbits, gold bars, toilet paper rolls, volcanoes and kitchen dishes. Until, you make your way to the final boss on level 8.

The game is well balanced and that makes it approachable and playable. Infinite continues and gradual consequences for making mistakes help keep the game from being too hard. However the last levels do become challenges which only practice can beat.

There was some real enthusiam put into this shooter. The controls are excellent, with a variety of power-up that lend themselves to a number of strategies. The nintendo was never meant to handle the amount of motion in this game but some how the game never slows down and flicker is evident only in the score and text. It's one of the most well made shooters and it's humour only helps to seperate it above the rest.