Wild Gunman (NES) Review
System NES (Wii U Virtual Console)
Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Genre Shooter # of Players 1 Release Date October 18th, 1985 (Original) January 7th, 2016 (Wii U Virtual Console) |
Pros
Good transition to using a Wii Remote Saloon Mode Cons Game play gets repetitive quickly. |
Review
by Thonos
3/11/2016
(REVIEW NOTE: This is based on the Wii U Virtual Console version)
Growing up watching old western movies almost all of them would have a shootout or a showdown. The two main characters would walk out into the middle of the main street in the town, stare at each other and then try to shoot each other to see who was faster. Wild Gunman for the NES tries to recreate this to some degree.
The gameplay revolves mostly around timing your shots and quick reflexes. When the enemy comes onto the screen and yells fire you only have between .4 and 1.5 seconds to shoot back before the enemy shoots you. Shoot too early and they yell foul which counts against you as well. Lose three times and the game is over. Not much variety here in gameplay but for an early Nintendo game I was not expecting much.
There are three game modes in Wild Gunman. The first mode has one enemy walk onto the screen, stand there and when they yell fire you have a small window to shoot them before they shoot you. The farther along you get in this mode the time to shoot back goes up and down. The second mode is like the first except 2 enemies come onto the screen. While the shot timers are sometimes longer, there are times where only one enemy yells fire and shooting the wrong one counts against you. The final mode is the outside of a saloon with four windows and one door. During each wave the windows and door randomly open with enemies popping out and all you have to do is shoot them before they shoot you. Unlike the first two modes you have an ammo count on the screen so if you run out before the end of the wave you will loose.
The game's graphics are not horrible, but they are far from great. There is only one background the game uses besides the saloon scene. The five different types of enemies are look different, but besides appearance nothing else sets them apart. The audio in this game is not bad but again the game only uses a handful of sound effects and a little bit of music. One little feature I liked was that when you pull the trigger button on the Wii remote when playing the speaker on the remote gives off the old NES Zapper sound.
Which leads me to my next point, you need a Wii Remote in order to play this game. When using the Wii remote a cursor is now on the screen to show you where you are aiming at. From my time with the game this seems to work out well and I had no problems with it. While this may not have the true feeling as playing the game on a NES with a Zapper in your hand, unless you have a old tube TV laying around this is your next best option.
Wild Gunman is a game that is fun in short doses. While the game is short on content and game modes, it does a decent job of trying to simulate an old west showdown. At the very least it was an early showing of what the NES Zapper was capable of.
by Thonos
3/11/2016
(REVIEW NOTE: This is based on the Wii U Virtual Console version)
Growing up watching old western movies almost all of them would have a shootout or a showdown. The two main characters would walk out into the middle of the main street in the town, stare at each other and then try to shoot each other to see who was faster. Wild Gunman for the NES tries to recreate this to some degree.
The gameplay revolves mostly around timing your shots and quick reflexes. When the enemy comes onto the screen and yells fire you only have between .4 and 1.5 seconds to shoot back before the enemy shoots you. Shoot too early and they yell foul which counts against you as well. Lose three times and the game is over. Not much variety here in gameplay but for an early Nintendo game I was not expecting much.
There are three game modes in Wild Gunman. The first mode has one enemy walk onto the screen, stand there and when they yell fire you have a small window to shoot them before they shoot you. The farther along you get in this mode the time to shoot back goes up and down. The second mode is like the first except 2 enemies come onto the screen. While the shot timers are sometimes longer, there are times where only one enemy yells fire and shooting the wrong one counts against you. The final mode is the outside of a saloon with four windows and one door. During each wave the windows and door randomly open with enemies popping out and all you have to do is shoot them before they shoot you. Unlike the first two modes you have an ammo count on the screen so if you run out before the end of the wave you will loose.
The game's graphics are not horrible, but they are far from great. There is only one background the game uses besides the saloon scene. The five different types of enemies are look different, but besides appearance nothing else sets them apart. The audio in this game is not bad but again the game only uses a handful of sound effects and a little bit of music. One little feature I liked was that when you pull the trigger button on the Wii remote when playing the speaker on the remote gives off the old NES Zapper sound.
Which leads me to my next point, you need a Wii Remote in order to play this game. When using the Wii remote a cursor is now on the screen to show you where you are aiming at. From my time with the game this seems to work out well and I had no problems with it. While this may not have the true feeling as playing the game on a NES with a Zapper in your hand, unless you have a old tube TV laying around this is your next best option.
Wild Gunman is a game that is fun in short doses. While the game is short on content and game modes, it does a decent job of trying to simulate an old west showdown. At the very least it was an early showing of what the NES Zapper was capable of.