Gunbird / arcade attract mode / 1994
13Gunbird is a vertically scrolling shoot em up released in 1994 by Psikyo. A port of this game was released as Mobile Light Force for the PlayStation 1. Gunbird was basically a Strikers clone with airborne characters instead. Gunbird has all the elements of a successful shooter - massive bosses, bullet-rife mayhem, beautiful 2D sprite graphics, and a nice challenge. The player destroys enemies and collects power-ups to upgrade the range of their weapon. There is the main weapon, and the bomber special attack, which can only be used a few times. There is a separate power-up for the special attack. Enemies are the usual assortment of robots and enemy ships and various ground-based targets as well, taking a page from the Raiden Fighters series, while bosses range from massive sentry guns and armed knights to enormous skulls. There's even a dragon and a mage cat towards the end.