Game of the Week

Wild Gunman

Now, we're gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hangin' Objective:

From the manual: "Put yourself in the middle of a western showdown. Armed with the Zapper, it takes a quick hand and dead-eye to earn your reward. Draw against the most wanted outlaws in the West. Then, if you're brave enough, take on the whole gang at once!"

Wild Gunman is on of the first generation of shooters for the NES. Like Duck Hunt, there are three game modes: 1 Outlaw, where you duel with a vile western villain; 2 Outlaws, which is the same as the first mode but with (gasp!) 2 gunmen; and Gang mode, where you fire at a number of outlaws in a saloon.

Game A:

In this game, you are in a one-on-one shootout with a vile outlaw. This is the absolute easiest mode in the game. The target range is not the gunman, but the entire screen. All you have to do is fire before the gunman does, and the gunman's speed is on the top of the screen.

Don't fire 'till you see the whites of their eyes...

The fastest any gunman will fire is .40 seconds. My personal fastest draw is .11, but I average around .28 seconds. Scoring is the gunman's "reward" plus a bonus based on the difference between your own time and the gunman's firing time. I ended up rolling the score counter over my first time playing. You can be hit up to three times before your game is over. However, if you fire too early, you'll get a foul and lose a hit. This is the only way to really lose, if you have an itchy trigger finger. For an extra challenge, try holding the Zapper at your side like a real gun, and drawing when appropriate.

Game B:

This is essentially the same as game A, but you have to shoot two gunmen instead of one. Remember to shoot the one who says fire first, or you'll get a foul. A bit harder than Game A, but not too bad.

Game C:

This is my favorite of the three modes. You are standing outside a saloon, trying to take out an entire gang of baddies, who pop out of the door and windows.

You have 15 bullets to use per wave of bad guys. Later on this can get pretty difficult for the average player. Want to make is more difficult? Try standing back from the TV as far as you can like you were supposed to in the first place.

Summary:

Wild Gunman is not the hardest of the NES Zapper games, but it is still fun. The sound is fairly decent, with a little death march tune every time you die. The graphics are par for the course for a game from the very early 80's. If you've never played it, I reccomend you give this one a shot.