(Vampire Night, Sega Golden Gun, and others)
Sega Golden Gun (世嘉金枪, Shìjiā jīn qiāng) is a rail shooter developed by Sega of China and published by Sega in 2010. The game borrows several gameplay mechanics from the House of the Dead franchise, and recycles the engine and assets of The House of the Dead 4.
Plot
Two unnamed college students are touring China for a trip. While inside a museum, the two are suddenly attacked by mythical creatures and zombies. However, a security guard from the museum gives the two Golden Guns and explains how to use them. With the guns in hand, the two students use them to fight back against the monsters as well as trying to figure out the source of where they're coming from.
Throughout the game, the students travel to different parts of China each overrun with creatures and a boss at each end. Each boss is a reincarnated form of a mythical figure from Chinese history. They fight Zhang Jiao, a sorcerer and a rebel leader from the Han Dynasty who takes on the form of a giant turtle in the town of Bai Jia Fang, Gao Qiu, a corrupt official from the Song Dynasty who battles with a dragon in the Jiu Qu Yuan garden, and Da Ji, a concubine from the Shang Dynasty in possession of a tiger spirit in the Shi Li Tan city.
Occasionally, the students battle a hooded figure who requests to test their strength in every location; he is later revealed to be the Monkey King who wants to see if the students can defeat the Dark Emperor, who is resurrected after being possessed by the Vermilion Bird; the students prevail. As the Monkey King begins to repair the city, the students decide to go to the arcade and play House of the Dead.
In the post-credits scene, the Monkey King acquires the golden gun and swears revenge before disappearing.
In another post-credits scene (if the "?" item is purchased in the shop), the museum security guard is revealed to be a spirit as well and becomes surprised when he hears the students have defeated the four mythical beasts. He then teleports away to an unknown location to report to his boss about them.
Gameplay
Like the House of the Dead games, Sega Golden Gun is a rail shooter in which players blast enemies while the camera travels a predefined path. Pistols are the primary weapons; by default, they hold 12 bullets (10 bullets during 2-player co-op), and pointing the gun outside the screen will reload them. However, if the player continues shooting with no bullets remaining, the gun will automatically reload. Consequently, this reloading takes longer. Blue and pink reticles appear wherever players 1 and 2 aim, respectively. Like most House of the Dead games, the stage ends with a boss fight, and has the player shoot the boss' weak points multiple times to stop their attacks.
The game features a weapon upgrade system where the player can upgrade their weapons to be much more powerful. There are two ways to upgrade their weapon, the first is during the start of the game, where inserting an additional credit would provide additional bonuses for the player, such as extra lives, increased magazine count, and more powerful bullets. The second method is through an item merchant. In each stage, an item merchant will appear twice in the background; shooting him activates the Item Shop. Here, players can spend the points they've accumulated on to purchase items, such as weapon power and magazine upgrades, different weapons, enemy weakening items, and bonus lives. The player is also offered a chance to insert another credit to gain additional points for the Item Shop. Item prices increases during multiplayer and for each stage the player advances. If the player runs out of lives, choosing to continue will get the player randomized bonus items.
By the end of each stage, the player is graded based on Critical Hits, Accuracy, and Total Time spend on the stage. The end-of-stage grade would determine the score bonus gained by the player; no bonus lives are awarded. By the end of the game, the total amount of points accumulated, minus those spent in the Item Shop and gained via inserting credits, determines the final score for the player rankings.
Like The House of the Dead III and House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn, the game contains a Stage select. The game's three middle stages — Bai Jia Fang (百家坊, lit "Hundred Homes Square"), Jiu Qu Yuan (九曲园, lit "Nine Zigzag Garden"), and Shi Li Tan (十里滩, lit "Ten Mile Beach") — are selectable in any order, and a final chapter will be unlocked once all have been completed. Unlike III and Scarlet Dawn, however, the route is set once players decide on which of the three stages the player decide to start first, and there are no branching paths, effectively making Sega Golden Gun the most linear game of all House of the Dead series and it's direct spin-offs/inspirations.
Development
Sega Golden Gun's voice acting was provided by Creativoices Productions, a Philippine-based talent agency that had worked on Transformers: Human Alliance, Operation G.H.O.S.T., and other Sega arcade games.[1]
Trivia
- Though never explicitly stated, the setting of the game is based on Shanghai. The museum is based on the Shanghai Museum (with a building similar to the Oriental Pearl Tower visible in the background), Bai Jia Fang is based on Shikumen, Jiu Qu Yuan is based on Yu Garden (the name of the location is a direct reference to Yu Garden's Nine Zigzag Bridge, or Jiu Qu Qiao), and Shi Li Tan is based on The Bund.
- SEGA Building, the final stage is based on Caleb Goldman's HQ from HOTD4 and presumably SEGA China's main office.
- Shi Li Tan featured advertisements and billboards for Dinosaur King in front of the museum/hall where Da Ji is fought, featuring dinosaurs from the series (Triceratops, Allosaurus, Acrocanthosaurus, Shantungosaurus, Stegosaurus, Einiosaurus, Carnotaurus and Suchomimus) and the two protagonists, Max Taylor and Rex Owen. Silhouettes of Dr. Z and his Alpha Gang can be seen below the logo.
Gallery
Official artwork
Promotional materials
Screenshots
References
- ↑ Creativoices Productions (September 21, 2019). "CreatiVoices Productions, Author at CreatiVoices Productions"9 (English). Creativoices Productions. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved on June 15, 2022. “[Creativoices Productions founder Pocholo Gonzales] brought the Filipino voice acting talent to the international scene in 2008, when he worked on several projects with the video game company Sega, whose arcade games such as Golden Gun, Operation Ghost, and Transformers: Human Alliance all used Filipino voice actors, all of whom are talents of Creativoices.”
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