It's not as immediately fun or replayable as Cybernator but the fact that it's such a massive, deep game more than makes up for it. This is one of the best Mecha games of all time and probably the best side-scrolling mech game ever made. Instead of a 3 hour arcade-style experience, Gun Hazard is a 20 hour long action-RPG with tons of depth and around 100 levels! It also boasts amazing pixel art, an awesome art style reminiscent of Metal Gear's Yoji Shinkawa, a long and epic story, and a fantastic soundtrack by some of Square's best. However, they've been blessed by 90's Squaresoft with deep RPG mechanics, a massive game-structure, and clearly, a much larger budget. Apparently some of the Cybernator staff worked on this and it would be hard to believe that wasn't the case as it looks and plays so similarly.
This is where the Front Mission spinoff, Gun Hazard, comes in. Unfortunately, all of them are only a couple hours long and structured like Arcade games. I've always loved this series, it's oozing with style and plays unlike anything else. Mega Man X, this is not! You can arc your gun 360 degrees, strafe, dodge, punch, dash, and equip many different weapons. You need to slow down, play strategically, and use all the tools at your disposal. The controls are slow and clunky but it's on purpose. Stylistically, it's Gundam, but a little more grounded and militaristic. This very much is "Cybernator the RPG." If you haven't played Cybernator or the Assault Suits games (Target Earth, Assault Suits Leynos, etc.), they're 2D Mecha Action games, kind of like Contra meets Armored Core. Unfortunately, this game never came to the West but there is a great English patch and it's even pretty playable in Japanese, I got through most of it on an actual Super Famicom cart before my save crashed years ago. It's not going to appeal to most people but if you love both Cybernator and action-RPGs then it's basically a 10/10. 20h PlayedThis is a very weird but awesome game.