Front Mission: Gun Hazard

Front Mission: Gun Hazard (フロントミッションシリーズ ガンハザード) is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Omiya Soft (the same team that developed the original Cybernator) and published by Squaresoft. It was released exclusively in Japan on February 23, 1996 for the Nintendo Super Famicom game system. A translation patch for the game was released in August 13, 2004 by the group Aeon Genesis, translating the entire game to English. The game is spin-off in the near-future, mecha-themed Front Mission series. It became available on Japanese Wii's Virtual Console service on May 20, 2008.

Gameplay
Unlike other Front Mission titles, Gunhazard is a side scrolling shooter game akin to Cybernator. There is a large amount of customization of your mecha and you can also choose a partner to help support you in battles. The main character can also exit their mecha to reach certain areas. After completing the first set of levels, three areas open up. It is up to the player which order they complete the levels.

Characters
The game’s protagonist is Albert Grabner, a sergeant in the Bergen Army when the game begins. He later becomes a mercenary for the Kernelight Foundation after a coup in his country led by Colonel Ark Hellbrand deposes the president of Bergen. He is joined by Brenda Lockhart, a mercenary initially working for Ark; she joins Albert after she is betrayed by Ark. Several other characters in the game join Albert after he helps them during his missions.

Albert is often in competition with Genoce Felder, a rival mercenary working for the Crimson Blow mercenary company, frequently assigned to the same missions as Albert, though sometimes on the opposing side. He is motivated by a desire to get close to his sister, a member of the Society, so he can kill her before she does something truly evil.

Setting
Front Mission: Gun Hazard features several military organizations:

Kernelight Associations is a Mercenary Guild located in New York. Mercenaries are hired and assigned jobs which is basically being hired by one side to fight the other side in a War or to Protect and Escort a V.I.P. from danger. Depending on what happens, Mercenaries either come back to receive their paycheck or they come back from their botched job in a bodybag. Merc-Work groups are a composition of a Carrier Pilot and a Wanzer Pilot working in tandem. Mercenaries that break Contract during a job are fired and no longer employed by Kernelight. The person in charge of Kernelight Associations is Richard Millman.

The Guardians: An Organization created to strike back against the Society, its ranks are composed of soldiers who lost their families and friends in wars that should never have started. Wars that were organized and started by The Society.

The Society: The Organization responsible for all of the Worlds miserable Wars and Conflicts. The Society uses the absolute power that they have in their hands to start them. A War that seems to occur randomly without warning, appears to be normal. But when one looks and digs deeper into the situation, they will find someone pulling the strings of the conflict: The Society. Governments rise and fall at their whims and no matter who wins the War, The Society always Profits. They use War as an accelerator and testbed for their Weapons and Technology. Their Armament Factories and their Primary Weapons Production Center, Madios, is located in Machu Picchu, Peru. With their Intelligence Center, Via Blanca, Located in Esporte, Brazil. The Society HQ is a Giant Flying Fortress named Sentinel.

The Red Shark are actually the Weapons Development Group of The Society. They're responsible for the troubles that have occurred in Sibirska. Shivaltz, leader of the Red Sharks, develops the Jormungand which is a giant Wanzer equipped with a Microwave-Beam/Electromagnetic-Wave Gun that can cancel out Anti-Laser Shielding and destroy anything in one hit. Only the Sakata Shield can stop this beam. Shivaltz's Designated Rank in the Society is "Number 6."

Story
The game begins with Albert Grabner, a soldier of Bergen, attempting to defend President Orwen as he flees the country following a coup led by Col. Ark Hellbrand. They are ultimately captured, and Albert is imprisoned as a kidnapper, along with Brenda Lockheart, a mercenary sent by Ark to kill Orwen but imprisoned to save themselves from having to pay her. Albert and Brenda manage to escape from jail and together, they flee to New York, where they join a mercenary company called the Kernelight Foundation. The two are sent on various missions, often having to compete with Genoce, the leader of the Crimson Blow mercenary company.

Eventually, Albert is given the opportunity to kill Ark, which he takes. Before Ark dies, he reveals that he had been taking orders from a woman named Royce Felder, a member of an organization known as the Society, which is bent on causing global wars so they can create a global utopia when the wars end. Albert leaves Kernelight after he is sent to kill a group of guerillas known as the Guardians, who are fighting the Society. He then joins the Guardians.

They send him to destroy a recently discovered Airship belonging to the Society called the Sentinel. On board the Sentinel, Albert finds Royce Felder. Genoce then appears and shoots Royce, because she is Genoce’s sister and he was unable to convince her to leave the Society. He then leaves. Wounded, Royce flees to the Control Room as Albert follows her. In the Control Room, Albert finds the leader of the Society, the Controller. The Controller reveals that he has no intention of creating a utopia; he simply wants to start wars. He dies as the life support systems of the ship fail. Royce asks Albert to give Genoce her pendant before she dies of her bullet wound.

With the Controller dead, a beam cannon in space begins firing at points on the Earth. Albert takes a space elevator to the cannon, where he finds that Genoce has already arrived. Genoce uses Royce’s pendant to gain access to the reactor core of the cannon. With the reactor destroyed, the space station begins to break apart. Genoce pushes Albert into an escape pod, choosing to remain on the station. The pod crashes into the sea, and Albert makes it onto a Guardian carrier.

Audio
The game's musical score was a team effort for Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Junya Nakano, and Masashi Hamauzu. The soundtrack, titled Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard Original Sound Track was first released on February 26, 1996, in Japan, by NTT Publishing.