Gungrave - Recreating the Arcade Experience Reviews
By G. Turner
Posted May 14, 2004

Just one of the ham-fisted villians you'll meet in Gungrave. Literally.

It has been more than a few months since I was last in an arcade. I can't pinpoint the exact date, but if you want to count Dave 'N Busters I'm sure my little D'nB card has that info stored somewhere for you. Nonetheless, there's something about arcade games that is vastly different than most console experiences, despite the fact that for much of the home console lifespan these machines have served to recreate the arcade experience. Now console games have better graphics and deeper gameplay than their arcade bretheren, but often lack that intense, visceral experience that typically accompanies a cacophony of arcade bleeps, pinball squawks and the ever-present crowd yelling above the din. Well, almost every recent console game.

RED Entertainment's Gungrave captures the flavor and feeling of pounding mindlessly on buttons, serving up hot, unlimited lead while wave after wave of enemies swarm in front of you. Couple that with the PS2's DualShocks tenacious vibration and you have an experience that, for a brief period of time elicits the feeling that you're standing in front of an arcade machine, desperately throttling the joystick while weaving slightly in step to dodge frantic energy bursts. Unfortunately just like any mediocre arcade game, that experience peters out pretty quickly. Even Gungrave's incredibly short duration isn't quite brief enough to hamper the feeling that the game is overstaying its welcome.

Don't even try deciphering this screenshot. It didn't make any sense to me when I played it, and it certainly won't make sense now.

I'm not even going to pretend to know anything about its story, or even the mosaic of backstory that could potentially be Gungrave. As far as I'm concerned, its story is just a smattering of cut-scene eye candy to attract users over to the machine. In fact, and this will be one of the few times you will hear me say this, the game could have used less story, less to slow me down! Akin to the cut-scenes, the visuals are pretty - the design (masterminded by Yasuhiro Nightow mostly known for Trigun, or so I'm told) is detailed enough to attract attention, but still traditionally over-the-top, dark and grim. Although, at times I couldn't tell whether that was for dramatic effect or whether it was to not put too much strain on Gungraves engine. Apparently its engine wasn't built with arcade action in mind, because the moment more than five or so enemies get on screen, the framerate takes a nosedive.

But really, I could nitpick and say well yeah, the sound is occasionally ear-catching when the deafening sound of bullets isn't ringing through your speakers. And I could complain about the somewhat awkward controls but really, 98% of the time you'll be mashing one and only one button. Sure, if you want to become a Gungrave Tommy and actually pay attention to the chain mechanic and then maybe, just maybe that percentage will decrease to 92%. What it boils down to is that for fifteen or so minutes, Gungrave is an excellent revisit to the mindless, faceless arcade games that shriek and scream at us, those games that we pump a few quarters into, get a little thrill, get our little high and then move onto the next. Now, if you can just keep your experience with Gungrave that brief, then it's worth the trip. Otherwise you'll end up with a stimuli hangover.

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Est. 2003