Developed by: Nintendo R&D1 and Intelligent Systems Released by: Nintendo
Introduction & Bias:
Here we are: Wild Gunman. This is the last of the Zapper Trilogy from the original seventeen. The games were not actually called "The Zapper Trilogy" but it's my blog so I'll do what I want.
As far as bias goes I really did not have any experience with this game before playing it for my review. I had seen a couple of pictures and I could swear they used this game for a brief scene in Back to the Future Part II. I'll have to dig that up in my trivia section to see if that is true.
Other than bits and pieces and some known cameos in Smash Brothers I'm going in blind. Let's see if that helps this game's chances.
First Impressions & Conveyance:
It's another black screen with the title. Plain, clear, and boring.
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| Not Pictured: Creativity |
The player gets the choice of three game modes and they are similar to the past two games. This time our game modes are called 1 OUTLAW, 2 OUTLAWS, and GANG. I wonder if that means we will see some of our favorite GANGs from Hogan's Alley. Nyah, see? Spoiler: we don't.
Game A is pretty simple. After a short Western-on-the-range style intro ditty sounds off the player is presented with an OUTLAW that shuffles slowly to the middle of the screen. Once in position, the OUTLAW will shout "FIRE" and the player has a limited amount of time to shoot the OUTLAW before being shot. The reaction time is clearly labeled and a count-up timer displays the player's reaction time. Being a quick draw is literally the only objective to the game and to the game's credit, it cannot be more clear about what the player has to do. Presumably the player wants to shoot the OUTLAWs for their bounties. I picture that the player character has a big problem with 19th century student loans.
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Game B adds a couple of wrinkles to this quick draw formula. First, the player is presented with two OUTLAWs to shoot with different time requirements. Once the fire command is given the player must shoot both OUTLAWs under their respective time limits. But the main source of difficulty is that occasionally one of the OUTLAWs will not draw their guns. Getting shot or shooting one of the OUTLAWs who apparently got cold feet will cost the player one of their three lives. Once again, the objective is clear but this mode is much more difficult because the game will not always reward an itchy trigger finger.
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| Pictured: The invincibility of non-combatants |
Game C puts the player's viewpoint in front of a fixed location where OUTLAWs can appear in one or two of five possible target zones. The player has limited ammo as noted by a bullet counter in the lower left corner of the screen. Perhaps this is the most complicated game mode since this is the most target-rich environment but the gameplay devolves back into a shoot everything mode as all of the OUTLAWs are valid targets 100 percent of the time.
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| Pictured: Shootout at the OK Saloon. Not Pictured: Shootout at the Excellent Saloon. They don't serve OUTLAWs there |
Experience & Presentation:
All of my fears regarding watching the clock during my play time with Hogan's Alley came true with Wild Gunman. If I failed to breathe much life into my description of the game it really has to do with how little the game asks of the player.
Now, if I were to be put into the shoes of a kid in 1985 I would have a couple of choices about how I would shoot at the screen. I could go full roleplay mode with my Zapper at my hip in a homemade Nintendo cartridge sleeve converted into a holster, sweaty palms waiting for my chance to fire and then drawing to blow my enemy away. Pretty badass, right? The game can't ask the player to do that. Nothing in either the NES's nor the Zapper's capabilities allows the game to know whether or not the Zapper is pointing at the screen. So what is a real kid going to do? Point the gun at the screen and wait for the chance to fire. OUTLAW never knew what hit him.
OK, maybe other than a kid's arms getting tired from holding a gun out in that position for a long time there really is not much challenge in that strategy. What am I, the 30-something reviewer, required to do? Click my mouse.
I really am making no secret that I am playing all of these games on my computer. It is the only practical way of playing every NES game. The only way to emulate the Zapper experience is by giving the player a crosshair and allowing them to click when they want to shoot. It is hardly a taxing experience. Wait, click. Wait, click. Wait, click. It was really boring. Game A mode is so easy that I started taking a nap while playing. I just relied on audio cues to get me through each stage.
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| Not Pictured: Alex, the richest lazy person ever to clean up the wild west |
Literally the only requirement in Game A is to shoot the screen in the 1.3 second to 0.4 second window presented to the player in each showdown. I chose my words carefully for that last sentence. The player has to shoot the screen, not the target. I will break down why this is in the trivia section as I want to expand on the Zapper's capabilities there. In Game B the screen is split vertically down the middle to designate the valid target areas between the two opponents and Game B has 6 target areas, only 5 of which can house targets.
The gameplay in short is too simple for its own good. So how does the presentation stack up? Also, in short: not great.
There is not much going on in the backgrounds for Wild Gunman. Much like Duck Hunt, this game only uses two backgrounds as set dressing for the three game modes. Game A and B share the same desert setting with lots of bones littering the ground, a couple of suguaro cacti and one of those ubiquitous desert mesas on the horizon. Game C uses a hotel setting to have the targets pop into frame through various doors and windows. Unfortunately, there is not a single railing kill to be had.
The targets themselves show the most charm and variety in the graphics. Each of the OUTLAWs are given a couple of frames of animation for meeting the player in the quick draw field and only one of the targets bothers to turn sideways while walking. Shooting the OUTLAWs will result in various funny situations such as belt buckles being destroyed, hats being blows off, or getting comically bowled over. It is implied that every target survives their encounter with the player as they declare that the player wins in a thought bubble after they are shot.
The targets gave me a chuckle for two different reasons throughout the review hour for two completely different reasons: their reaction to a foul and their expression to telegraph their shots.
If I were in a showdown and I managed to set up first and saw my opponent slowly shuffle out to meet me on the field of battle I'd try to waste that sucker as soon as I saw his face. Screw honor, I want that bounty money! Wild Gunman is a game, though, so the player has to wait for the OUTLAW to draw first and then the player can shoot.
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| Pictured: "I'm telling mommy!" |
Then something needs to be said about the eyes of the OUTLAWs when they draw. It negates any sympathy I could possibly have for them. They are possessed by demons.
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| Pictured: "Draw... out your soul!" |
Verdict & Score:
Wild Gunman is not a deep or very interesting game. The game is easy enough to understand, sure, but that is not hard when the player can only do one thing. Game A was a literal snoozefest, Game B had something to offer briefly, and Game C picked up the pace of the game but was only a temporary diversion.
The fact that the game modes were almost entirely about speed rather than accuracy hurts their playability. The game is further hampered by the fact that Zappers are boring to emulate and that they don't work on modern televisions. Out of all three Zapper games to come out at launch for the NES this one has the least to offer and feels more like a relic of the past. Fitting, then, that the game's setting is the most aged of the three.
Overall Wild Gunman only earns a 3/10. There is not much game on offer and what there is does not stand up to its competition.
Factoids & Trivia:
So it turns out that I was right. Wild Gunman was that game that Marty McFly played to demonstrate that he was a crack shot, at least with fake guns. The third movie applied Marty's skill to real firearms. There are three interesting factoids about the clip trivia-wise. First, the game shown in the movie clip was an unreleased “VS.” version of the game cabinet. The second is that Marty gets to use the version of the Zapper that Japanese players could optionally get. It was a plastic case modeled after a Single Action Army revolver: the gun of choice for Revolver Ocelot. Third, is that the little kid in the clip is Elijah Wood in his first film role. Already hobbit sized.
Wild Gunman itself is the product of much refinement. The first version of the game came out in 1974. This arcade game involved quick drawing and shooting at a 16mm film projection. The object was to wait to draw until the enemy's eyes flashed. Then the player could shoot and proceed. This, at least, explains the beginnings of the OUTLAWs demonic presence.
Finally I want to use the rest of this space to explain the Zapper and how it works. The Zapper is a light gun. The Zapper itself is a bit of a misnomer because, unlike what my five-year-old self wanted to believe, the Zapper does not actually zap anything. When the trigger is pulled on the Zapper the games it works for will go dark for a split second. White boxes appear where the targets are. If the sensor inside the Zapper sees the white light it registers a hit. If not then the game knows the trigger was pulled but to no effect. The game will cycle very quickly between the white boxes of the available targets so that the game knows which target is shot. This is how I discovered that the entire game screen of Game A was a valid target because the entire screen flashed white when I pulled the trigger.
Now, Zappers do not work on modern television sets because there is an input lag on modern TVs. The best modern example of input lag comes from the Rock Band series. One of the biggest pieces of maintenance the player has to do in Rock Band is to compensate for the lag between the video and the audio of their media systems so the precision of the controller inputs can be detected exactly. The same concept applies to the Zapper. Old CRT TVs had a consistent latency of their screens between all models. This allowed Nintendo to calibrate the Zapper to respond to all TV sets without requiring some sort of manual calibration on the part of the Zapper owner. The link below gets into this explanation with quite a bit more science behind it.
All right, enough Zapper talk. It's time for something new! Join me next time as we start tackling the black box sports games with 10-Yard Fight. Pun intended.
Sources:
NES box art:
Back to the Future II clip:
Wild Gunman arcade clip:
Obligatory Wiki link:
Expanded Zapper explanation:
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