Gunma's Proof SNES Review

Copyright (c) 2014 Eli Gali

In the later years of the Super Nintendo lifespan a lot of games were released, unheard and un-played outside of Japan. The content of these games tends to be exemplary. This is due to developers mastering the Super Nintendo's hardware as it was nearing the end of its shelf life (the N64 is also an example of this). The predominantly Japanese only games pushed the boundaries of the Snes and the only reason most of us have seen them is due to the hard work from the fanslation community.

Unheard of gems in the Snes catalogue are actually easier to find nowadays due to the rapid growth in interest and collections of the console. When you delve into the consoles Japanese death knell, many fantastic games come to mind. 'Gunmans Proof' is an example of a game with a late release but with plenty of quality and brilliance.

'Gunmans Proof' is a fanslated gem in the crown of a little known company named ASCII. Their work was never truly appreciated on English speaking shores and perhaps that's why this game missed a translation and release in 1997.

The game has the blatant mechanics of Zelda - Link to the Past; however, unlike the vast majority of Zelda clones in the Super Nintendo library, this actually has a somewhat unique approach to the action-RPG genre. The protagonist is a young boy who goes to investigate a series of bizarre events, which we find out to have connections to the meteors that land at the start of the game. Within this role we begin to find numerous areas that are resoundingly similar to Zelda, but instead of swords and shields, we have guns and horses. These items are collected throughout, alongside a running score system and six dungeons with difficult boss battles. If you look at screen shots of the dungeons most would assume that they are difficult, time consuming puzzle quests. This isn't the case with the vast majority of the game based around the action end of the scale, shown predominantly when our hero arrives at a boss and the game becomes a shoot and move affair.

The game has some of the best sprite work on the Super Nintendo (rivalling Earthbound) all of which is set against 1880 cowboy roaming America. My favourite part was looking at the landscape, with almost flawless controls and interesting areas to roam. Some of the greater aspects within this game come from the fanslation. As translations of Snes games go, this is truly flawless and even though it's mostly generic dialogue, they were able to add humour and character development through the conversing of character to character. A prime example of this the relationship the young boy has with his father and the subsequent need you feel thereafter to live up to his expectations.

The fact that there is a handful of Wild West games in the Snes library and an even smaller amount of RPG's (Live a Live's western scenario is the only other that I know of) this games should be hailed as a fantastic piece of work and furthermore, something that will never be replicated, unlike it's basis (Link to the Past). For those willing to play something tried and tested with new elements, this game can fully cater for them alongside a strong rolling action-RPG concept.

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