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Well over two decades since it first came out, Gunstar Heroes still has the ability to surprise. Even if, like me, you've been returning to it on an annual basis ever since, the 60 minutes it takes for a play through are so dense with ideas you'll still find some new detail, or some new piece of throwaway comedy: a foot soldier hiding under an oil barrel and scurrying away from the fray; a downed boss tossing you the gem you covet in his death throes, only for it to explode and chip away your health in a cruel piece of slapstick. It's one of those perfect video games, impervious to the passage of time. M2's sublime handling of the 1993 Mega Drive original for the 3DS is now easily the best way to play Treasure's shooter - which isn't itself much of a surprise, if you've been following M2's excellent work with 3D Classics on Nintendo's handheld. It's a Criterion Collection for Sega's brightest and best, restoring classics such as OutRun and Afterburner 2 with emulations that are as good as you could hope, complete with nerdish, completist options that were never there before (if you care about the difference between sound processors on the two iterations of Mega Drive hardware then boy are you in for a treat). They've easy claim to being the definitive versions of the games they feature.
There's something special about this one, though. Part of it's the wonderful symmetry - early on in M2's history it created another handheld take on Gunstar Heroes, performing the seemingly impossible task of porting the game to Sega's underpowered Game Gear - and part of it's the affinity the studio clearly has with the source material. This is a restoration as well as a meaningful remix, and it's one that sings with passion and care.
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