Steel Gunner is a series of light gun games by Namco. Their first light gun game to be exact. The first game was released in 1991, and the sequel in 1992.
The game takes place in the futuristic city of Neo Arc City and follow two of their police officers, Garcia Voigt and Cliff Tapp, who are part of Neo Arc City Police's "Steel Gunner" Unit, a special division that deal with mech and powered armored threats via piloting two of their own mech suits dubbed "Gargoyles".
In the first game, the two take on an organization named STURM who has kidnapped two scientists to create a superweapon for them. The second game deals with a new terrorist group named Vanguard that seeks to take over the city.
The game was known for fast paced visual and destructive environment and having quite a ton of character for the series.
There also exists a fanmade remake of the first game for the PC98, called Steel Gun Nyan
. It features an altered plot where Garcia and Cliff are replaced by a girl, and it now involves saving a female scientist named Nolan Lian from the terrorists.
Unrelated to Flame Gunner.
Tropes
- All There in the Manual: According to the official Japanese Laserdisc guide for both games, the officers' full names are Garcia Voigt and Cliff Tapp. Jessica Lain is the pilot’s name, and the Chief’s name is Doug Koenig. The Laserdisc also reveals the names of the enemies in both games, as well as the Big Bad in Steel Gunner 2: Gary Harkes and his right hand robot, Geek.
- Big Bad: Gaste Bernard in the first game. Gary Harkes in the second game.
- Bio Punk: the Vanguard in part 2, whose units are as much monstrous as robotic.
- Bloodier and Gorier: All enemies in Steel Gunner 2 bleed.
- Da Chief: Garcia and Cliff report to Police Chief Doug Koenig; you do too much damage and you see him chewing out the two.
- Determinator: The bosses of their respective games are tough bastard despite constantly being gunned down.
- In the first game, after you destroy the superweapon, Gaste confront you personally without a mech suit. You shoot him down to reveal he's a cyborg. And even after you blow his head off he still tries one more time to take you out until you finally kill him for good.
- The leader of the Vanguard's bot, Geek, seems to go down pretty easily, but then you find out he was remote controlled and the true head honcho is Gary Harkes, a cripple. He tries to kill you via self destruct but you manage to stop that in time then get to the surface of his airship. Just as your ride comes to pick you up, Geek busts through the surface to fight you once more. You finally take that out and get on the ship... only for Geek's remains to likewise jump on as well. Your can either shoot him out yourself, or, humorously, if you wait a bit, Jessica will do the job for ya albeit berating you for taking so long.
- The Dragon: Geek, Gary's right hand robot, in Steel Gunner 2.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Geek does all the heavy lifting for Gary, who is a Non-Action Big Bad.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Gary's right hand robot is named "Geek".
- Game-Over Man:
- Cliff and Garcia looking beat up in the first game.
- In the second, the two standing before Doug, their police chief, looking battered while the chief looks like he's about to burst an artery.
- Hostage Spirit-Link: One of the earlier example, if you save some hostage you get some life up. But hitting them will detract some life.
- Interface Screw: In Steel Gunner 2, the life meter and missile counter begins malfunctioning if the player is running out of energy.
- Kidnapped Scientist: Two scientists are kidnapped in Steel Gunner to force them to build a super weapon.
- New Neo City: Both games take place in Neo Arc City, a pun on New York City.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Gary doesn't do much, leaving all the heavy lifting to Geek. When you confront him, he activates a Self-Destruct Mechanism in an attempt to take you down with him.
- Rail Shooter: Natch, though it was the first one where the pace was much faster than the usual slow scrolling ones that came before it (Like Operation Wolf and Space Gun) giving much more immersion to the gameplay.
- Powered Armor: The two heroes, Garcia and Cliff, use these to fight the terrorists.
- Robotic Reveal: Gaste Bernard, the villain of the first game, is shown to be a cyborg whose human disguise gradually gets blown off as you shoot him down.
- Point of No Continues/In the End, You Are on Your Own: Once you reach the final boss in the first game, you can no longer use the continuous play feature, and when playing solo… no second players can join in for you to break the "no more continuing" rule. If you die here, your game will be over instantly and for real!
- Smooch of Victory: Sort of; in a two-player game, the player with the highest score at the end of the game will get greeted by Dr. Ellis (in Steel Gunner) or Jessica (in Steel Gunner 2), while the runner up meets with either Dr. Ryan or Doug.
- Storming the Castle: The final level has Vanguard's airship raining destruction down on the city so Cliff and Garcia take the fight directly to them and blast their way through the airship.
- Superweapon: Two kidnapped scientists are forced to build a super weapon in the original Steel Gunner.
- Taking You with Me: After you beat Geek, Gary decides if he's going down, he's taking you with him and initiates the self-destruct. Forcing Garcia and Cliff to scramble to where the mechanism is on the ship and shoot their way through its defenses before they're all blown up. Fail to reach it in time and it's a Non-Standard Game Over.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The first game takes place in the then-future year of 2004.
- The Unfought: Gary in the second game, mainly due to him being a Non-Action Big Bad. The only thing he does when confronted is activate a Self-Destruct Mechanism in an act of Taking You with Me.
- What the Hell, Player?: Take too long to defeat Geek in the second game, Jessica will finish it off for you, but not before calling you out.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Err not literally, but in both games, the villains big plans will come to fruition despite your efforts.
- In the first game STURM kidnaps two scientists and steal the equipment needed to make the superweapon though the following stages until you eventually have to confront it in the final level.
- In the sequel, you reach the hideout of Vanguard and storm your way through the base before reaching the hanger of their airship. Just as you confront the leaders, they teleport away and you fight your way out of the base just in time to see the airship taking off and headed for the city. And as a demonstration of its firepower, it launches a energy blast at the duo the barely dodge that instantly blows up Vanguard's former hideout.
