Gain Ground was originally released in the arcades back in 1988 (and later ported to the Master System, Genesis, and Turbo-Graphix 16, and later still remade on the PS2 as part of the SegaAges collection). It was rather unique in that it supported 3 players (not 2, not 4; 3), although the console ports only supported 2 players (obviously, the game would work well on Xbox Live regardless). Most multiplayer games back then were either straight-forward beat 'em ups or shoot 'em ups. Gain Ground has more in common with Gauntlet than it does with Double Dragon or Gradius. However, unlike Gauntlet, each player had multiple warriors to choose from. Starting at a mere 3, players were encouraged to pick up straggling warriors across its many battlefields. Also unlike Gauntlet, Gain Ground featured static levels; that is, they didn't scroll. What you see is what you get in Gain Ground, which cuts out the hack and slash monotony of Gauntlet and replaces it with a more action-packed arcadey feel.
Instead of trying to find a secret exit, or search of treasure, Gain Ground simply has the player trying to accomplish one of two goals; kill everything or have all players cross the Exit barrier. Obviously, killing everything is always the best option, but sometimes the player might find themselves in a situation where that isn't possible. Another thing that sets Gain Ground apart from Gauntlet is it's use of two ever-present attack options. Typically, this involves a speedy short-ranged attack, or a stalled long-ranged attack. The short-ranged attack works best on enemies that are "up in your grill," which is more often than not the case. However, aside from being useful with non-moving enemies, the long-ranged attacks USUALLY are able to bypass foreground barriers, i.e. they can hit enemies that might be on an inaccessible hill or rooftop. This is why sometimes it isn't feasible, or even possible, to kill every enemy on screen. The player might be stuck with the "ground specialists," characters that didn't have a long-range attack that could pass through foreground barriers; their only choice would be to avoid those enemies and have their crew pass threw the Exit barrier one at a time, extending the time spent on the level, and therefore decreasing their overall time-bonus.
From a purely story based perspective, Gain Ground wasn't super unique. You and a group of warriors are trapped inside an evil computer simulation, and must rescue your fellow soldiers. However, what makes the setting unique...or rather, convenient, is that the creators of Gain Ground weren't limited to a strict setting for their game. Wanna fight cave men? Let's do it! Wanna fight giant bugs in a scary desert? Sure! Wanna fight robots? Why do you even ask!? Recruitable characters are also diverse; from tribal cave-men to futuristic super soldiers. One would think that the future characters would always be a first choice, but many players found that the "bow and arrow" characters were the most well-rounded, and therefore almost always the best choice.
It is worth mentioning that Gain Ground has a really rockin' soundtrack. Not only did each 'Age' have different music; each piece of music was super lengthy! Most songs didn't loop until a good 2 or 3 minutes, which for the time was pretty impressive. It helps that each song is also SUPER catchy, and tends to get stuck in your head.
Enough of this explaining why Gain Ground is so awesome. Here's a list of potential achievements:
Gained Ground: Beat the game.
My Favorite Character: Beat the game on Extra Mode with only 1 character.
None Left Alive: Beat the game having killed every single enemy.
Conscientious Objector: Beat the game having killed only what's necessary i.e. bosses
Take No Prisoners: Beat the game on Easy mode having never rescued any survivors.
My Own Clone: Rescue a survivor with the same character.
Cyber Funk: Using Cyber, kill five enemies with a single shot.
Your Name is Mud: Using Mud Puppy, kill all enemies on screen without moving vertically.
Trapped in the Matrix: Using Professor or Kid, kill 2 enemies with a single shot.
Not Fair: Using Water Knight, kill an enemy after trapping it in a water spout.
Pinball: Using Zaemon, kill 7 enemies with a single tornado.
General Disarray: Using General, kill every enemy on screen without ever disengaging his flamethrower.
I love Gain Ground, and you should too.
-AfroRyan
Dat Music...
UPDATE FOR RA:
I am going to brainstorm further achievements here for the sake of whoever picks it back up. I think to encourage more play, we should have simple, low point achievements per stage; that way, the level select code is a non issue. Then have protection against that code for the "full" achievements for beating each age (set of levels) and for the whole game with its 3 difficulties. I like all of my original proposed achievements from my old blog post, and I think I'll expand on that line of reasoning by developing one achievement per character for doing something weird/fun/cool. This way, we can also reuse the achievement icons for them (but 3 more will have to be made for the starting 3 characters), and it also doesn’t seem like handing out free achievements. Since Hard mode gives you instant access to all characters, it wouldn't be *that* hard to practice or grind out, either. I'll be updating this section as I think of things for each character. I'll need to revisit some of the levels to be inspired for specific challenges, because at least a couple would be redundant unless I can think of some theming (there's quite a few characters that more or less have the same abilities, that differ by range or speed or some other small thing).
Character Achievements:
[not protected from level select]
Ahhh! It's Athra! - As Athra, complete 1-3 under 60 seconds.
Bam-ba-lam - As Betty, kill all enemies on 1-2 with only her grenades.
Bravo, Johnny - As Johnny, exit 1-6 after killing everyone except the enemies outside of his range.
Glowing Death - As Glow Knight, kill 4 enemies with a single conjuration of his glowing orbs.
Verbal Abuse - As Verbal, beat the entire Ancient Age using no other characters (hard only).
Ride of the Valkyrie - As Valkyrie, kill two enemies with two boomerangs at the same time.
Pure Fire - As Fire Knight, complete 1-10 under 60 seconds (his special attack melts bosses extremely quickly).
My Name is Mud - As Mud Puppy, kill all enemies on 1-5 without moving vertically.
Trapped in the Matrix - As Professor, kill 6 enemies in 3 shots.
Lobby Entered the Lobby - As Lobby, beat 2-3 by killing all enemies.
Lucky 7 Pinball - As Zaemon, kill 7 enemies with a single tornado on 1-7.
Yes Mam! - As Mam, after throwing 2 boomerangs, kill an enemy with her pistol, and later have her 2 boomerangs kill 2 other enemies.
Water You Doing? - As Water Knight, capture and subsequently kill every wizard on 2-8 with his water magic.
Spiders From Mars - As Mars, beat round 5-4 by killing all enemies. [Alternate Bowie title: Is There Life On Mars?]
General Disarray - As General, kill every enemy on 2-4 without ever disengaging his flamethrower.
Kou And Co - As Kou kill every enemy on 3-4.
Cyberfunk - As Cyber, kill 5 enemies with a single shot.
Kid Chameleon- As Kid, finish 2-9 killing all foes.
Honey Roasted Nuts - As Honey beat 4-3 killing all foes.
No One Fights Like Gascon - As Gascon, finish 3-7 killing all foes.
Levels:
[not protected from level select]
Welcome to the Simulation: 1-1
Bridge Over Troubled Waters - 1-2
Inroads to Violence - 1-3
Caveman Mob - 1-4
Surrounded - 1-5
Fort Fight- 1-6
Stay in Your Lane - 1-7
Devil Worship - 1-8
Parthenon - 1-9
Doomed - 1-10
Rise From Your Grave - 2-1
Storm The Gates - 2-2
Castle Town Tragedy - 2-3
Line Ém Up - 2-4
Moat Monsters Mortis - 2-5
Castle Hall - 2-6
Sanctuary - 2-7
Wizard Smile - 2-8
Winding Wizard Wallop - 2-9
Death Adder's Cousin Twice Removed - 2-10
Arrakis - 3-1
Dune - 3-2
In the Trenches - 3-3
Mow Them Down - 3-4
In the Rice Fields - 3-5
Bombermen Under Siege - 3-6
Alleyway Afterlife - 3-7
Follow the Yellow Brick Road - 3-8
Horse of a Different Color - 3-9
Oni Twins - 3-10
Blood in the Streets - 4-1
Arcade, Restaurant, War - 4-2
Joypolis - 4-3
Traffic Does Not Yield - 4-4
Too Crowded Let's Go Somewhere Else - 4-5
Used Cars For Sale CHEAP - 4-6
Subway Entrance is Crowded Today - 4-7
Treadmill? Escalator? Conveyor Belt? You Decide! - 4-8
Hall Pass Required - 4-9
Tanks For The Memories - 4-10
Robot Run - 5-1
Popcorn's Done - 5-2
Robot Balls - 5-3
Spider Bite HURT - 5-4
Bott-Hurt - 5-5
Judgement Day - 5-6
Forcefield Fight - 5-7
Friggin' Lasers Beams - 5-8
Balls of Steel - 5-9
A Weapon to Surpass...Well, You Know - 5-10
Completion:
[protected from level select]
Origin - Primitive Age conquered (any difficulty).
Acceptance - Medieval Age conquered (any difficult).
Change - Nomad Age conquered (any difficulty).
Consumed - Present Age conquered (Normal or Hard required [it is skipped in Easy Mode]).
Conclusion - Future Age conquered (any difficulty).
Warrior's Duty - Easy conquered (stacks w/higher difficulties).
Warrior's Rest - Easy no continues conquered (stacks w/higher difficulties).
Like a Nightmare - Normal conquered (stacks w/hard).
Awaken - Normal no continues conquered (stacks w/hard).
Great Gainer - Hard conquered.
Door of Spacetime - Hard no continues conquered.
No Survivors - Beat the game having killed every single enemy (no continues allowed) [normal or hard].
Conscientious Objector - Beat the game having killed only what's necessary i.e. bosses and unavoidable enemies (continues allowed) [normal or hard]. Research needed. Likely too difficult, and a small but reasonable number would need to be voted on.
Take No Prisoners - Beat the game on Normal mode having never rescued any survivors (continues allowed) [aside from your starting 3 {no doubles of those character allowed, of course}].
Note that while this game has continues, you're not doing yourself any favors by using them; you only get the starting 3 characters if you continue, so if you're expecting a "refresh" of what you came into a level with, you're sadly mistaken. Also, I don't think Easy mode is actually any easier; it just cuts out the "Present" Age.
Misc:
[Any goofy ideas I may have that don't fit into any category. Not protected from level select]
My Own Clone - Rescue a survivor with the same character on Easy or Normal (impossible on hard since survivors don't spawn).
Left Behind - experience a time over (but get at least one character through the exit).
Listen To The Music - Listen to every stage theme in-game until it loops [most levels will be beaten by players faster than the music can loop, and the music is so good and needs to be experienced {and the visuals of the levels add to the atmosphere, hence why it wouldn't be allowed in sound test}] [likely zero point achievement/s].
Notes on various versions:
This is for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive version, but there's 4 other versions to consider. First, the original Arcade version. The level layouts are the same, minus an entire area that was added just for the console port, and it supports 3 players. That's super cool, but not really something that matters in terms of achievement building. The biggest difference is the raw power the game performs at, with bigger sprites, scrolling, etc. A fun game, to be sure, but not high-priority in terms of a separate achievement set, which would resemble the G/MD set but be missing some achievements based on the fact there's less levels.
The Master System version is almost wholly unique, with new level layouts, an entire new themed section (different from the Genesis' new area), and it's missing a bunch of survivors, but does have 1 unique one in the Ninja class...and that's actually how the game does characters; as classes. Depending on whether you start the game as player 1 or player 2, you have either male or female classes, respectively. A set for it would need to be retooled, obviously, but would be very similar in spirit.
The PCE-CD version, Gain Ground SX, is much more in-line with the arcade version, with a more zoomed in perspective with scrolling. I'm much less familiar with this version, and aside from the newly arranged music, fancy graphics, and animated opening cutscene, I'm pretty sure it's a more one-to-one port of the Arcade original (but with only 2 players, again). It's set would likely mirror the arcade one, but have one low point achievement for watching the new cutscene.
Lastly, there's a PS2 remake, part of the Sega Ages line. It is...different. It's fully polygonal, is missing the G/MD and MS levels, but it also has its own unique levels too. It has amazing renditions of the music, along with its own brand new music, which is also great. It's set would look similar to the arcade, but start to branch out with achievements for all of the unique content it has.
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