WatchmeplayNintendo

This is a capture of me playing through Griffin for the Sega Game Gear. This is being played through the downloadable port of the game released on the Switch.

Here’s another Game Gear shmup. Griffin is a rather obscure 2D tank shooter that was released only in Japan in 1991. For some odd reason it was ported to the Switch last year as a downloadable title (minus the Sega boot-up screen). I like the Game Gear quite a bit, not to mention shmups, so I decided to get this game.

Griffin is quite simplistic. You have three selectable shots that you can access at any time by pressing start (except on the third stage, oddly enough), but only the main shot can be fired in multiple directions. The sub and special shots can only fire upwards, which is actually quite useful for firing while dodging. You also have a limited number of bombs.

There are only four different levels, but you have to repeat levels 1, 2 and 4 in order to truly beat the game. It’s a strange design.

I like to rely on the explosive special shot most of the time, and simply switch to the main shot when I need to fire in different directions. The sub shot seems rather useless overall.

Griffin isn’t terribly difficult (especially since bombs seem to make you immune to enemy fire), so I managed to record a no-death run in just a few days. Enjoy.

Recorded with the Elgato Game Capture HD60 and the Switch's HDMI cable at native 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. I'm using a Switch Pro Controller.