Steel Gunner 2/Gameplay

Controls

 * Lightgun: Use the lightgun to move the gunsight of Garcia (or Cliff if you're player 2) around the screen. Squeeze the trigger to fire your character's machine gun, and press the button on the side to make your character launch a missile, which will injure (or kill) all enemies currently on the screen.
 * 1 or 2 Player Buttons: Push these buttons to begin the game as player 1 or player 2.

Garcia and Cliff
These Neo Arc police officers are, still, the protagonists of the game; this time they are on a mission to defeat the army of "Vanguard" who are attacking the city. They must progress along a predefined path through each of the game's four acts and possess the power to shoot anything on the screen including the background objects and innocent bystanders - but just like how they will lose energy, if they should get shot by any of the enemies, they will also lose energy if they accidentally shoot a bystander (that is also indicated by the bystanders collapsing and shouting "Ouch!" or something similar). When they are low on energy, the text "WARNING" will appear over their life bar, and a warning sound effect will start to be heard from the C140; however, they will regain energy (and gain additional missiles, as they only start out with four) at the end of all except the final act, depending on how accurate their shooting was. They now also have a new Police Chief to answer to (the old one was white, but the new one is black) - and a new but unnamed female operative who appears in the end of the game's second to sixth acts.

Innocent Bystanders
There are eight different types of Innocent Bystanders to watch out for; whenever one runs into view, the text of "DON'T SHOOT!" will appear above them. If you accidentally shoot one, you will lose some of your energy as if you had been hit by an enemy (again, it will also be indicated by them collapsing and shouting "Ouch!" or something similar) - and this means that if you accidentally shoot one of them while you are low on energy, it could end up costing you the game. However, they are all smaller than the enemies, so should be easy to avoid.

Zaku
These Transformer-like robots attack by either: running (or leaping) into view from the left or right sides of the screen, coming up directly in front of you, dropping down into view from the top of the screen, or jumping out from behind background objects while firing shots (or throwing grenades) at you.

Atmospheric Airships
These power-driven aircraft attack by: flying into view from the left or right sides of the screen, directly towards you, or from behind you, while firing missiles at you; two of them will also appear at the beginning of the game after the building explodes and all eight Neo Arc police officers run away.

Domu
These Transformer-like robots attack by either: coming up from behind the background objects or running into view from the left or right sides of the screen while firing missiles at you; again, they will take more hits to defeat than the Zaku, and will sometimes cause a huge explosion upon death.

Airship Zaku
These aircraft-carried Transformer-like robots attack by: flying into view from the left or right sides of the screen, directly towards you, or from behind you while firing shots or throwing grenades at you; like the Biker Zaku, they take more hits to kill than the normal Zaku, and will fall to the ground.

Tarantulas
These Transformer-like robots (which do not resemble their namesakes), attack by either: running into view from the left or right sides of the screen, or by coming up directly in front of you, while firing shots at you; they are the first new Transformer-like robot you will encounter in this game.

Mosquitoes
These large, green, insect-like airborne robots attack by either flying into view from the left or right sides of the screen, or dropping down into view from the top of the screen, while firing missiles at you; they also look somewhat more like their namesakes than those of the original did.

Mountains of Needles
These large natural elevations of three very fine slender pieces of polished metal will attack by extending as Garcia and Cliff approach them.

Aggai
This enormous, red, airborne robot (who has been rebuilt since the original defeat) is the boss of the first act; he will first fly into view from the right side of the screen (and off the left), and when the screen starts scrolling to the left he will start firing missiles at you (the text "SHOOT" will also appear above him at this point). Once you have fired enough shots at him to defeat him, he will explode and fall to the ground for the second time - and the "act clear" theme will then be heard from the Yamaha YM-2151, as the text "YOU DEFEATED THE INVASION FORCE. BUT THE TOWN WAS BADLY DAMAGED." appears at the bottom of the screen. (It is also worth noting that for the original Steel Gunner, he was the boss for the second act); he also reappears upon that fifth act, and once you have fired enough shots at him to defeat him again, you will have to fight two identical clones of him. In the sixth act he also reappears for a second time, along with one of his two aforementioned clones - but you don't have to fight both of them together.

Kurage
These one-eyed jellyfish-like robots attack by running into view from the left or right sides of the screen or dropping down to the ground from the top of it while firing shots at you; once the screen has stopped scrolling downward for the second time in the second act, you will be faced with thirty-two red dots. Once the text "NIGHT VISION MODE ON-LINE." appears at the top of the screen, the "dots" will be revealed to be their aforementioned eyes - and the screen will then start scrolling inwards, as they come running towards you. Once you've killed them all, "NORMAL VISION ACTIVE." will appear.

Boater Zaku
These boat-riding Transformer-like robots will attack by hovering into view from the left and right sides of the screen, while firing shots at you.

Beam Guns
These cannons (of which there is now only one type), will attack by emerging from the left and right sides of the screen, while firing shots at you.

Ceiling Guns
These cannons (which are another new enemy to defeat) attack by coming down into view from the top of the screen while firing shots at you.

Capsules
These small cases (which contain some type of strange-looking brown aliens) will not attack you, and simply stand in place waiting to be shot.

Clone Aliens
These asexually-produced extraterrestrials (who are also contained in small cases) will not attack you and simply stand in place waiting to be shot.

Dummies
When you meet up with Vanguard and Great Leader Danbain for a second time in the game's fourth act, they will transform into two of these green ships as the text "IT'S A DECOY! WE'VE BEEN TRICKED!" appears at the bottom of the screen; they will then begin flying around in front of you.

ICBM Launch Pads
These domes, as their name suggests, attack by launching ICBMs into the air; Vanguard's ship also has the power to drop them on you.

Shutters
These hinged panels will, much like those Beam Guns, attack by emerging from the left and right sides of the screen while firing shots at you.

Ball-Shaped Shutters
These spherical hinged panels, which look somewhat like the Kanshaku-dan from Namco's own Finest Hour attack by flying into view from the left and right sides of the screen, while generating an electrical force-field in front of you; they also only appear in the self-destruct sequence of the sixth act.

Vanguard
Named after the player's tank from Blazer, this mad evil scientist is the main antagonist of the game; he will first hover into view with Great Leader Danbain on the second act, as the text "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU GUYS! GARCIA, CLIFF. YOU ARE THE ONLY THREATS, TO OUR PLAN, TO CONQUER THE WORLD. YOU MUST BE ELIMINATED." appears at the bottom of the screen. Later, on that fourth act, when you meet up with him and Great Leader Danbain again, they will transform into two Dummies as the text of "IT'S A DECOY! WE'VE BEEN TRICKED!" appears at the bottom of the screen - and once you have defeated Great Leader Danbain in his first form on the sixth act, the screen will start scrolling inward, as it comes to a pair of double doors. Once they've opened, you'll come to him once again; the screen will then go black as the text "IT'S UP TO ME NOW. I'VE SET THE SELF DESTRUCT DEVICE. I'M GONNA TAKE YOU WITH ME." (and: "30 SECONDS LEFT! I CAN'T MAKE IT! WHERE IS THE SELF DESTRUCT DEVICE? GOOD!"), appears at the bottom of it. If you don't manage to destroy that self destruct device in time, it'll explode and the game will immediately be over.

Great Leader Danbain
As mentioned above, this enormous blue Transformer-like robot will first hover into view with Vanguard on that second act, then transform into a Dummy with him on that fourth act; however, when you meet up with him on the sixth act, the text "WELCOME TO YOUR GRAVES!" will appear at the bottom of the screen, and he will start hovering around the room (while firing "energy bombs" at you). Once you have fired enough shots at him to defeat him, he will explode - and later in the act, he will burst out of the ground (in his second form) just before the big blue aeroplane comes in to land, which will cause it to take off again. Once you have fired enough shots at him to defeat him again, he will explode, and recede back into the ground; the screen will then scroll to the right as the aforementioned blue aeroplane comes in to land, then start scrolling inward as it goes into it. Both players' scores (which were, for a sixth and final time, not displayed during gameplay), will then be displayed at the top of the screen, under the text "1UP" and "2UP", and their hit/miss ratios on either side of the text "HIT RATE" above the shot of the unnamed Neo Arc female operative, as the text "LET'S TAKE OFF" appears below it; the screen will then cut to a real-time shot of the shocked-looking operative, as the screen scrolls to the left and Danbain bursts into the aeroplane in his third and final form. Once you have fired enough shots at him to defeat him for a third and final time, he will explode and the screen will go white - and you can now enjoy the ending which shows Vanguard's (destroyed) ship about to crash-land in an ocean.