Do you know of any other game that has you going up against a giant mechanical bunny?
GunNac is a Shoot 'Em Up by Compile released for the NES in 1991.
The game's plot tells the story of a far-off artificial solar system named IOTA Synthetica, which is being colonized by the people of Earth due to depleted resources. The real trouble begins when a wave of cosmic energy causes animals and even inanimate objects to come alive and start attacking the people. All is not lost, for the Space Federation has enlisted the help of Gun Nac! Gun Nac's mission is to search to system's 7 planets for signs of hostile forces, perhaps even an invader...
While GunNac is fairly obscure, it is rather popular for its smooth gameplay, detailed graphics, and quirky setting. It also has an unusually high degree of customization.
Tropes Associated With Gun Nac
- Adapted Out: All references to the shrine maiden pilot from the Japanese version are hidden, but not entirely removed, from the North American release.
- All There in the Manual: Averted. One version of the game's plot story is illustrated in cinematics upon the game booting up.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: And there are plenty of 50-foot whatevers to go around.
- Beam Spam: The Type-5 Weapon, especially when fully upgraded.
- This also applies to the flamethrower (Type-4) weapon. Despite the beams becoming shorter the longer the fire button is held, repeated tapping the fire means not having to worry about it losing its range.
- Bonus Stage: Area 0, which is accessible only from the level select, qualifies as a brutal bonus level due to a lack of weapons, scarce power-ups, and scant bomb supplies available.
- Boss Rush: Area 8 has three of the previous areas' bosses.
- Bullet Hell: Activting "Ricochet of Bullets" can turn higher difficulties into this.
- Casino Park: Area 5.
- Cheat Code: Holding down both the A and B buttons during the intro story will give you the option to activate Non-Death.
- Collision Damage
- Destructible Projectiles: Several enemies' attacks can be nullified by simply shooting them. Bombs will nullify standard enemy bullets as well.
- Easier Than Easy: Novice difficulty + Non-Death = Why bother playing?
- Easy-Mode Mockery: If you beat the game on Novice difficulty, you won't see the full ending. This is also true if you have Non-Death activated, no matter the difficulty.
- Elemental Weapon: The bombs use Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Water to attack the enemy.
- Every 10,000 Points: Extra ships are earned at 30,000 points, at 100,000 points, and at every 200,000 points.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Quite literally. Everything ranging from bunnies, cigarette lighters, toilet paper, umbrellas, coins, pottery... and so forth.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The sub-weapon bombs come in four flavors: Blizzard, Fire, Thunder, and Water.
- God Mode: Non-Death.
- Homing Projectile: Weapon type 3 in Gun Nac's arsenal, as well as some of the enemies' attacks.
- Killer Rabbit: In the opening cinema, one of the creatures terrifying the people is a giant rabbit. Of course, this is a foreshadowing of the game's first level, where the enemies are almost nothing but rabbits.
- Killer Robot: Area 5's boss.
- Kill It with Fire: Weapon type 4.
- Many of the enemy craft in Area 2 use fire-based attacks.
- Lethal Lava Land: Area 2.
- Made of Explodium: Everything.
- Making a Splash: The Type-W bomb fills the entire screen with a cascade of droplets, arguably making it the most effective of the four bombs—especially when fully powered up.
- Maneki Neko: The mid-boss in Area 5.
- Mercy Invincibility: You die in one hit, so thankfully every item you pick up makes you invulnerable for a split second.
- Miko: The girl in the extended intro and ending scenes.
- It is implied that the shrine maiden is Gun Nac.
- Moon Rabbit: Area 1 is nothing but this trope.
- Multiple Endings
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Nintendo Hard: Expert difficulty + Ricochet of Bullets = Aggrivation. - One-Hit-Point Wonder: Partially averted. Picking up a Wing upgrade not only allows more powerful guns to be used, it also allows Gun Nac to absorb one hit without exploding. However, without a Wing attachment equipped, it's one hit, you're dead.
- 1-Up: Not only provides an extra life, but it also doubles as a Wing attachment. Depending on whether or not the ship has a Wing attached, each 1-up token collected potentially allows Gun Nac to take up to two extra hits per life.
- Parasol of Pain: Some of the weapons in Area 3 are sentient umbrellas.
- Playing with Fire: Type-4 weapon is a massive flamethrower. Possibly the most useful of the 5 types, especially when coupled with the Wing upgrade.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: Area 6.
- Shows Damage: The mid-level mermaid boss in Area 3, whose arms have to be blown off, is one of the few enemies in the game that does this.
- Single-Use Shield: The Wing power-up.
- Smart Bomb: One of the power-up items.
- Stock Money Bag: Landers leave behind floating dollar bags when shot.
- Video Game Flame Throwers Suck: Averted. The Type-4 is quite powerful.
- When Trees Attack: Area 4 lives and breathes this theme.
