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Gun Frontier

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Gun Frontier is a 1990 arcade vertical shoot-'em-up based on the animated series of the same name. The setting of the series and purportedly of the game is an extraterrestrial American Wild West, with the player fighting to defend settlers from airborne pirates -- the game, though, actually looks...

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Developer
Taito

Released on
1990

Size
1–2 Players

Version
Arcade

Requirements
Arcade

Downloads
Shooter

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

Cooperative
Yes

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Description

Gun Frontier is a 1990 arcade vertical shoot-’em-up based on the animated series of the same name. The setting of the series and purportedly of the game is an extraterrestrial American Wild West, with the player fighting to defend settlers from airborne pirates — the game, though, actually looks to be an entirely standard military-themed shooter, with the player’s jet fighter set against tanks and other airplanes. Guns and bombs are levelled-up and collected by dropped power-ups, which are money-themed, with the gun upgrades shown as American dimes and bombs as gold bars.

Gun Frontier was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997 and was later included in the cross-platform compilation Taito Legends 2 in 2006.

Gun Frontier

Overview & History

Released by Taito in 1990 and designed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Gun Frontier is a cult-classic, vertically scrolling shoot 'em up heavily inspired by 19th-century American Westerns and 1930s prohibition-era gangster lore. Set on the alien planet Gloria, the human colonists are facing brutal enslavement and extermination by the invading alien race known as the Wild Lizards. To save humanity, the government deploys two experimental fighter planes modeled after classic propeller craft, salvaged and retrofitted with frontier firepower. Distinct for its gritty, sepia-toned steampunk aesthetic and heavy metal soundtrack, the game stands out as a gritty precursor to Taito’s later masterpiece, RayForce.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

Unlike typical sci-fi shmups, Gun Frontier introduces a unique resource system centered around gold dust. Defrosted enemies drop gold nuggets and gold bars instead of traditional power-ups. Players must actively scoop up this currency to charge a devastating screen-clearing bomb attack known as the Full-Auto Smart Bomb, which transforms your ship into a roaring locomotive. The game features two distinct player ships: the Desperado and the Chop-Master. Both vessels possess standard rapid-fire weapons, but can also collect specialized power-ups that alter their shot trajectories into wide spreads or concentrated laser streams. The difficulty is notoriously punishing, featuring claustrophobic boss encounters against massive, mechanized airships and train-like dreadnoughts that dominate the upper atmosphere of Gloria.