Gunhound was originally released back in 2009 on the PC, followed by an enhanced PSP release in 2010. Now 4 years later in 2014, the game makes its way back to PC on Steam and Playism to Western audiences for the first time. It was made as a tribute to other mecha shooter games like Assault Suits Valken (Cybernator in the US), and thankfully it’s just as every bit as good as that game.

The game is about your character Juliane Yuri and her job in the military organization in which she belongs to, as a pilot of the Armored Hunter Gunhound, the titicular mecha. Fight the opposing army, shoot things. Pretty simple stuff. But that’s what makes it fun. The game has a low budget, but it nails the game-play down. It’s a tribute to other mecha shooters like Assault Suits Valken, practically to a tee. Even the antagonist’s portrait resemble the one from that game. Although Valken was more of a platform affair, Gunhound is more of a strict left to right side scrolling shooter. You can aim your gun just about from any angle, and you get use powerful secondary weapons. The weapons have a limited ammo stock before reloading, but thankfully all weapons have unlimited ammo. You can even use a melee attack for close up encounters. In fact, it will automatically trigger when an enemy gets too close.

The game also has a training mode to acclimate you to the more advanced controls of the game, even though stuff like Zero G physics is applicable in limited instances in the game’s scenario. The game does have a scoring system, but death or failure means the score you’ve accumulated up to that point is reset to zero. The the game does keep track of your collective earned points though, and when you reach new thresholds, you can unlock new weapons to play with. The game is challenging though, as it only can take a few hits to destroy you. But recognizing patterns will see you through, and thankfully you get unlimited continues and level checkpoints. While there is no way to restore health, you can cast off your first layer of armor, which gives you a new health bar. This also increases your mobility but increases the damage you take.

The game does feature a nice soundtrack, but it’s not exactly memorable. You can’t really find yourself humming or whistling to it that is. It’s more of a thing to actually listen too in or outside of the game. And it has a very arcade-videogame style to it. The game also features voice acting which makes the game feel more like you are actually having radio communication with the other soldiers a bit more. There is no English dub accompanying the voice acting though. The game is also a straight port from the PSP version, so visuals do not have HD sprites, resembling an early low budget PS1 title. But it still looks and plays just fine. The game does have a constant 60 frames per second though, unlike the PSP release. There really isn’t much to complain about regarding actual issues, outside of it being to easy to die and having no health pickups being questionable design decisions. The levels are pretty short though, and the game shouldn’t last longer than about 5 hours at most on a first playthrough. Maybe the game could have offered some extra modes of play to increase replay value outside of achievements, to further justify it’s EX re-branding. But Gunhound EX is a decent shooter for mecha fans and it’s a good deal for even 15 bucks, and it only takes up 588 MB of hard drive space. Definitely check it out.

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