|
 You
knew it wouldn’t be long before Nintendo released a Wild West game for
the Zapper. In fact, American
audiences didn’t have to wait at all as Wild Gunman was an original launch title. In Wild
Gunman you are an unnamed gunman (most likely a deputy or sheriff but
if you so desire you could be another evil gunman) who is collecting the
bounty on outlaws by defeating them in quick draw competitions. This title was originally a 1974 arcade
game featuring actors that you must defeat, obviously for the NES the
graphics were changed to goofy cartoonish villains.
In each round you must outdraw your opponent, his draw speed being
shown at the top of the screen next to yours. Very quickly you will notice that your
draw speed is significantly faster than even the quickest gunman, which
means the only way you will lose is if you lose your concentration and
accidentally miss him. Because of
this most players prefer the 2 outlaw mode where you must mow down two
outlaws, in this mode one of them is always slow on the draw leaving the
game still not very challenging.
The final mode is by far the most fun.
In “Gang Mode” you are in front of a saloon and different outlaws
will pop out from behind windows or the front door. As the levels fly by you need to be
quick and actually have decent aim to survive.
There are around five or six different gunmen that you’ll see repeatedly,
they each have different death animations, which are fun to watch a
couple times but will quickly wear thin.
Overall Wild Gunman suffers
from the same problem as Duck Hunt –
the game is very fun for a few minutes but you soon realize that no end
is in sight and your arm is getting tired.
 Positives:
Just like Duck Hunt, I like the large graphics and the accurate
shooting of the Zapper. I also
greatly enjoy the Wild West theme of the game. The outlaws are all cool, I just wish
there was more variety and challenge.
Glaring
Negatives:
As I mentioned above, there
just isn’t enough variety or challenge to make this game fun for more
than ten minutes. I wish that
there was some kind of story mode or at least a super quick draw outlaw
that you have to face in a climactic final battle – instead the game just
goes on forever.
Graphics
and Sound: Good
The background scenery never
changes throughout the game and there are only a handful of outlaws to
shoot but what little there is to see has been nicely rendered. Each outlaw has a unique death – one outlaw’s
pants fall down while another collapses to the ground. A nice death song plays when you get
shot and it really sounds like someone yells “Fire!” when it’s time to
draw your Zapper.
 Gameplay and
Controls: Great
It is very difficult to miss
an outlaw in this game because they are quite large. I have no complaints in the gameplay
department.
Features:
Three Modes
Like all three of the launch
titles that were Zapper games, you get three different game styles. Wild
Gunman offers up an insanely easy “1 Outlaw” mode that I can’t
imagine every dying in. The “2
Outlaw” mode is a little tougher since you sometimes miss an outlaw in
your hurry to move on to the other guy trying to kill you. The “Gang Mode”
is by far the most fun as you can easily die in the later stages as you
hurry to kill the next outlaw.
Fun?: For
a little while
Due to the fact that the
stages repeat themselves forever and that none of the outlaws can draw as
quickly as you can the fun wears thin quickly.
Challenge:
Not Much
Even if you challenge yourself
by truly drawing the Zapper just like the outlaws are doing, the game
still isn’t very hard. Even the
quickest outlaw draws slower than you.
The “Gang Mode” offers the most challenge but it still isn’t much.
Replay:
Definitely
Zapper games are cool because
while they get boring quickly; they certainly offer a short burst of fun
and a large dose of nostalgia.
2
Player: No
Unfortunately Wild Gunman is a one-man affair.
Online
Manual?: Yes at Nintendo Age
You can find every NES manual at www.nintendoage.com
Bottom
Line: Good for a brief moment
Wild Gunman is a
good break after you’ve just beaten a long game. You are going to have fun for a few
minutes but then you will quickly tire of the repetitive style of
play. The game never ends and isn’t
very hard so you may find yourself just turning the game off before you
have even been killed by an outlaw.
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