Gain Ground

Gain Ground is an arcade game that was rewritten for Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis. In 2004, it was rereleased in Radica Games' TVPlay Legends Vol. II TV Games compilation. It was "remade" in the PS2 title "Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 9: Gain Ground," released only in Japan.

Gameplay

In Gain Ground, players control one of a set of characters at a time. There are over a dozen different characters, each with diffrent weapons. To beat a level, players must reach the exit point with at least one character or destroy all enemies on the level before time runs out.

Littered across the level are captive charcters, which can be rescued by walking over, then escorting the controlled character to the exit point. If a player-controlled character is killed, that character turns into a captive, except that they will disappear if the next active player-controlled character dies, exits the level without them, or the player has no characters left in their party.

The game is over when all controlled characters in the party are killed without any reaching the exit. However, there are three continues which allow a player to restart the level with their original three characters.

There are 50 levels.

History

Like many games for the Genesis, Gain Ground started its life as an arcade game. Released in Japan and America in 1988, Gain Ground ran on the Sega System 24 architecture. It supported up to three players at once. Each player had an 8-direction controller and two buttons.

Gain Ground was released for Genesis in 1991. Gain Ground was released for Sega Master System in 1991.

Storyline

From a Gain Ground flyer:

A long period of peace has deprived the earthlings of their instinct to wage war. The Federated Government, greatly concerned regarding this ever increasing dangerous situation, developed a GAIN GROUND simulation system in the year 2348 in an effort to instigate their ever waning fighting spirit. However, suddenly without warning, the Supercomputer went berzerk and took many of the citizens as hostages. In order to rescue the POWs, three of the bravest warriors were urgently dispached to go forth into the deadly GAIN GROUND.

However, it is not necessary to understand or know about the storyline to be able to play Gain Ground.

External links

Gain Ground on the KLOV (Killer List of Videogames)

Translation of an interview with Yoshiki Ohka, one of the programmers for Gain Ground.