Help, I'm being kidnapped!

Gunman Clive arrived at a budget price on the 3DS eShop just before Christmas and early in the New Year, depending on your region, and served up a slice of enjoyable retro-infused action. It's popped up in our news category courtesy of an update to resolve a few issues, but most notably for developer Bertil Hörberg's revelations that the eShop release is out-performing the iOS equivalent.

We've spoken to Hörberg since, to learn more about his development studio and Gunman Clive itself. One question we posed was related to the source of inspiration for the title, with plenty of gamers linking its style to various retro franchises. The answer we received wasn't necessarily surprising.

Yes I'm borrowing heavily from a lot of games. The core gameplay is heavily based on Mega Man, then there's features copied directly from a whole bunch of games, from Castlevania to Mario and Zelda 2. It's quite fun reading reviews and comments where people speculate on my influences; sometimes they identify some of the most minor references and sometimes they list games I haven't even played, but I guess some of the things I've borrowed are in quite a lot of different games already.

There are certainly plenty of nods and winks to classic titles in Gunman Clive, though now we at least know which are prominent courtesy of the developer. Keep an eye out for our full interview later today.

What references or influences do you think feature the most in this title?