Shawn Holbrook plays Gun-Nac - Part 4 of 4

In the last two areas of the game, the locales take a rather strange turn for the...interestingly normal. Good lord, the developers are weird.

Area 7

This level looks a lot like something out of Gradius. Not only will those walls of fire kill you if you touch them, you'll see short wisps of flame as well as long columns of fire coming out of them, and sometimes the fringe fire can cover up nearly the entire screen at times. You'll also see sun-star like balls, fire worms and flames that arc up before coming straight down at you. The normal enemies here look a lot like light bulbs.

Not only is treading carefully recommended, but also having the ability to take two hits instead of one is preferred. This level can be unforgiving if you're not careful.

The red tiles are the nastiest enemy in this area, as it shoots a lot of projectiles in a circle-like pattern that covers many angles. You'll definitely want to consider them a high-priority take these down as soon as you can.

There's only one boss here, and it's some sort of flame moon that moves back and forth while shooting at you. If you have the Homing Crescent, he's deathly easy.

Area 8

This is the last level, so you'd better power up fully before you take this area on. When you leave the shop, you'll get an item that converts money bags into bombs. This is nice, as you won't be needing money anymore and you'll be collecting bombs a lot more easily if you've been collecting money bags out of habit.

The laser beams are really nasty. They'll move towards you and horizontally track, turning towards you as soon as you're next to them. Be on the move!

You'll face the giant moon from Area 1, the giant acorn from Area 4, and the tank from Area 2 before facing the final boss.

You'll finally face the boss: some sort of alien. It sends a bunch of turret tiles at you (which can easily be destroyed with the Water Bombs) before coming out through the floor and flying around. Shoot at it and avoid both the turret fire and the metal plates on the floor that come at you, and keep holding the Fire button at all times. Ditto when it hides underneath the floor where you can't hit it, as the tiles and turrets will keep flying at you.

Once you destroy it, you'll then take on the second form. It will try to shoot a bubble at you before a giant arm comes out of it. Use the Water Bombs on the arm, and keep holding down the Fire button. You want to take out the arm as soon as possible, as it shoots five small fireballs directly at your current location.

When you beat this thing, the nation is peaceful once again, and you'll be declared a national hero! Congratulations on playing this weird, quirky, underrated Nick Arcade classic!

Also, if you beat it on Expert, you'll be able to get a different ending.