Gunship DX is a game that isn’t seen all that often on the GameBoy handheld, as the game is an on rails military shooter. As with most arcade on rail shooters, they don’t have much in the way of a story. Gunship DX doesn’t have any story elements at all. The game has you select one of the three missions available out of five; with the last two being locked. Each mission has a specific objective and once you complete that objective, you can move on to the next mission.
Like most on-rail arcade style shooters, you are in control of a target reticle that you move around the screen. You have a gun that is your main weapon, with a secondary explosive weapon that has limited uses. Using the explosive weapon, it can take out all enemies on screen instantly.
One of the neatest things about this physical release is the inclusion of rumble support. Back when the GameBoy Color was it it’s prime, there were a few games that offered rumble support in the form of a motor in the cart that was powered by a single battery in the top of the cart. This made the games that supported rumble a bit longer than your standard game cartridge.
With Gunship DX, the rumble motor has been soldered to the PCB inside the cartridge shell. It’s a rather impressive accomplishment and offers a fun and unique dynamic to the game.
Gunship DX is pretty impressive for a GameBoy Color game. The enemy sprites are proportioned nicely and animated well. Each mission has a slight variation on the environment and set pieces. With the game being played in an isometric type view, the game is presented well. The scrolling is very smooth and there is little to no slowdown when it comes to the overall performance of the game.
The music found in Gunship DX is very much tailored to the game. You have military cadence at the main menu and a nice arcade style soundtrack that is typical of arcade shooters of the 90’s when it comes to the missions. Given the platform however, the music found in this game is rather limited, but fits the game nicely despite the limitations of the hardware.
Gunship DX is a unique game being offered on the GameBoy Color. The genre, player perspective, and the technology advancements of the cart itself, make this game not only unique but rather historic. This is the first game released on the GameBoy platform to offer rumble support on the cartridge itself and eliminate the need for additional battery power.
If you’re a fan of arcade shooters, or you just want to own a part of video game history, you should definitely look into picking up Gunship DX.
You can check out the physical release here and the digital release here.
A review version was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.