HUUUUGE fan of GUNBIRD, don't let my on record playtime fool you.

Switched over from emulating the PAL version of GUNBIRD Special Edition on PS2 in 60hz mode for the achievements + to support the devs bc I like it *that* much, and that's a high bar coming from someone like me who is already a (self-proclaimed) fairly big fan of STGs, and niche ones at that. Knowing this is a *very* good port going into it helps too though, lol

An enjoyable soundtrack, gorgeous backgrounds and spritework, and an addicting learning curve to charge shot optimization (you stop firing and they take literal seconds to charge, can you hold out long enough to pull it off? When should you even charge? How long do you wait to release it once it's ready?), along with a visually striking cast keep GUNBIRD prominently at the front of my mind when I'm itching for a shoot em up.

This port also has a very nice and clean widescreen UI, which I appreciate. Would like to get a vertical monitor setup some day, but until then I'm a big fan of the addition, especially the extra overlay for your keybinds which I haven't seen before, because I *will* forget them during extended breaks from the game, lol

tldr: excellent shmup and one of my favs, excellent port for its asking price (but I was lucky enough to receive my copy as a gift). Definitely consider picking it up even if it isn't on sale (currently -66% at the time of writing)

(Ignore my time played, i have this game on multiple systems)

Everyone who likes shmups/shooters owes it to themselves to play the Psikyo games (the Strikers series, Gunbird series, and Samurai Aces series). It seems like Toaplan (who i also love) is usually considered the best developer when it comes to shmups, but i think Psikyo was every bit as good and deserves to be mentioned alongside them as the best of the best. The Psikyo ports by City Connection are very good.... except on the Switch, unfortunately, where they are basically unplayable due to input lag. But you're not reading this on Switch, so who cares! The PC port is great.

Anyway... this game rules, as do all of the others mentioned above. Love the Psikyo shmups.

I find Psikyo shooters to be a mixed bag. There's a good deal of them I don't care for. However, the Gunbird series isn't among them.

Gunbird is one of Psikyo's more straight forward shoot 'em ups. The player has a shot, and like many Psikyo shooters, holding down the shot button charges a more powerful attack. I'm a ABS (always be shooting) type player. I tend not to care for charge shot mechanics as they interrupt the flow of the game. Gunbird does a pretty good job of keeping the interruption to a minimum. The player also has limited resource bombs.

The type of shot, charged shot and bomb attack are dictated by the player's choice of character. All of them play a little different, but I didn't find any particularly better or worse. Though, I haven't really explored all of them fully yet.

Gunbird can be an easy game if the player pushes the difficulty that way. Which is often not the case for Psikyo shooters on Steam. Conversely, the increasing the difficulty also provides more challenge. On Normal a half way decent shmup player can probably make it to stage 3 after a few runs.

Like all the Psikyo shooters on Steam, the player may have to use the configuration tool to get the setting as they like them. The game plays windowed by default. The mapping of keys is done here. While the assignment of those keys in done within the game's option menu. I find this needlessly complex, but it's a sight better than some Steam shooters. ANd once it's setup, it is setup. Just note, that due to the charge shot, you'll want to make sure to set one of the buttons as Shot. Since Auto Shot won't allow the charge attack to occur.

Gunbird isn't among my favorite shooters. Though, it is one of my favorite Psikyo shooters. I don't find quite as good as Gunbird 2, but it isn't that far behind. It is a STG I do plan on coming back to every-now-and-again.