It was developed by Psyworks and published by Atlus in Japan in 2004 and by Xplosiv in Europe in 2005.

New features include eight difficulty settings, an adjustable view option (letter boxed and vertical, full screen and horizontal), and the Practice Mode.

[1][2] Gunbird Special Edition received generally moderately positive reviews.

Retro Gamer awarded it seven stars of ten: "If you’re after a good-looking old-skool blaster, and have superhuman skills, then you'll want to show your mates exactly what you can do with this".

[3] NowGamer gave it a score of 7.7/10: "Neither game is short of bullets or personality – you just have to be prepared to look past the dated visuals".