Gunbird 2

Developers: Psikyo. Publishers: Capcom. Release date: Febuary 2, 2001.

Gunbird 2 is a fantastic (hows that for early praise?) 2D scrolling shooter and yet another hit for the brilliant Capcom. Basically players chose one of 7 zany characters (each with different attacks) and flew up the screen shooting everything that comes your way. And I do mean everything! Enemies constantly come in waves at you, showering the play area with hundreds of bullets and projectiles.
Not being much of a shooter fan back in the day, Gunbird went totally beneath my gaming radar and I didn't play it, but having picked up a copy (a bargain £3) for my Dreamcast collection I must say that its a brilliant title which has hardly been off the console. (And what a fool my younger gaming self was.)
It looks fabulous, even having just come off the sublime looking Devil May Cry 4, proving that the Dreamcast can still shine with todays games. Robots and weird looking space crafts sail around the screen in lush colours, making the player often yell 'cool!' at them. Or maybe just me.
There are 5 difficulty types in all ranging from BABY mode to VERY HARD, the latter being indeed very VERY Hard, blimey! The not so hard levels are a joy for first time players of these type of frantic shooting games, I was sure glad of them because the tougher modes would be enough to put me off altogether. Hey, nobody enjoys dying every 5 seconds right?
What was cool about Gunbird 2 was that for the Dreamcast it had an online rankings board so gamers could strut their virtual stuff. Too bad Dreamarena is a thing of the past but only illustrates just how far ahead of the pack Sega was at the time.

Characters:

Marion - A magician.
Alucard - Vampire, son of Dracula. Alucard is Dracula spelt backwards.
Valpiro - A military robot.
Tavla - Teen girl with a jet pack.
Hei Cobb - A guy with a turban on a flying carpet. Cool!
Aine - A one eyed Samurai.
Morrigan - The succubus from Darkstalkers makes an appearance. Doubly cool!

And like I said you pick one these dudes/dudesses, in order to take on the hilarious (but deadly) Queen Pirates. The final boss is an Eleephant God that is an obvious parody of the Satochan mascot of Sato Pharmaceuticals company.
This is arcade 2D shooting at its brilliant best and deserves a place in any gamers collection, the only downside can be the price. I got really lucky in getting it for £3 because ive seen Gunbird 2 sell for around £8 and upwards. On second thoughts for £8 its still a pretty decent price for such gaming excellence.
Quality rating: 10 Jagerbombs!