A game by NG:Dev.Team for Neo Geo AES and MVS, Dreamcast, PS4, and Switch, originally released in 2012, with the X version released in 2019.
Gunlord is a sidescrolling shooter that is heavily influenced by the designs of the
Turrican series, particularly the Amiga versions of
Turrican and
Turrican II: The Final Fight. The original game was developed for Neo Geo hardware and later ported to Dreamcast. Years later, the studio revisited the game with an enhanced edition entitled
Gunlord X, which includes larger levels with more secrets, rebalanced difficulty, four new bosses, a new auto-scrolling jetpack stage, enhanced graphical effects, new music tracks, a widescreen presentation, twin stick controls (optional), a level select, an auto save feature, and a speedrun mode that unlocks once the player completes the game. (ed note: All screenshots are from the
Gunlord X version of the game.)
The game kicks off with a pre-title cutscene showing the Gordian Gaiden (the eponymous Gunlord) shackled to a chair and sitting before a tribunal that – rather than accusing him of a crime – states: “You are captured!” In the game’s original release, the dialogue contained the somewhat more believable “You are guilty!” Gordian insists that he must rescue his wife, at which point he is reminded that he has no gun. He breaks out of his shackles and presses a button on his armor that teleports a gun into his hands, shouting: “You are cute. I am the Gunlord! Have a nice day!” as he murders everyone in the room and escapes. In the original release, this dialogue read: “Bitches! Die in Hell!” followed by a scene of one of Gordian’s captors being ripped apart by gunfire and his brains exploding out of the top of his head. This scene is severely toned down for the Gunlord X release, with the people diving out of the way of gunfire instead of being killed.
