1990 · Kaneko · Shoot 'em up · Shooter

Heavy Unit

Heavy Unit is a side scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game developed by Kaneko and published by Taito in 1988. It was ported to the PC Engine and Sega Mega Drive by Taito and was released on December 22, 1989. There was also a Mega Drive port by Toho entitled "Heavy Unit: Mega Drive Special" released on December 26, 1990. The player takes control of a star ship that can transform in to a mecha by obtaining a specific type of power up.

Released: 12 December 1990
Platforms: Arcade Sega Genesis TurboGrafx-16
Genres: Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: Kaneko
Publishers: Taito
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Science fiction
Country: Japan

About

Heavy Unit (ヘビーユニット, Hebii Yunitto) is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by Kaneko and published by Taito in 1988. A version for the PC Engine was released on December 22, 1989. There was also a Mega Drive conversion by Toho entitled "Heavy Unit: Mega Drive Special" released on December 26, 1990. The player takes control of a star ship that can transform into a mecha by obtaining a specific type of power up.

Keywords

shoot 'em up
mech

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player's ship had two forms: a space-ship and a giant robot. Players started controlling the Heavy Unit in its space-ship form as default. As they progressed, they could change the ship into its robot form, thus changing its firing mode and mobility. A checkpoint was active however and the Heavy Unit only had one hit.

Power ups are dropped by a specific enemy ship which appears in fixed points during the levels. Every level of the game contains a mid-boss and a final boss.

Story

Set in 2013, humankind's first artificial star and planet, "Le Tau", is under attack from genetically modified alien monsters. The player must navigate a "Heavy Unit", a heavily armed, transforming mecha, in order to defeat the onslaught and protect the human colony.