Man, gamers these days are so goddamn needy when it comes to what a video game should have, aren’t they? They’re always wanting big, epic stories, graphics so good that it will make live-action footage look inferior in comparison , a million customizables, 9999fps or some garbage at all times, it’s all too much! Don’t they know that you don’t need all of that in order to make a good game? As long as you have a good foundation to work off of, some creative ideas, and enough content to leave the player satisfied, that should do the trick just fine. Hell, there are plenty of games that were released in them good ol’ days that were able to become classics not by being crammed with too much stuff, but with taking a swing at the fences, creating something that was familiar for some, yet featured new twists to make it more interesting. Take, for instance, a game I definitely should’ve played a lot sooner than later, Wild Guns.
I had known about this game for a long time before I first checked it out, I wanna say since around 2015-2016, when I had watched a video of it on YouTube, and based on what I saw, it looked pretty fun and unique. However, because old habits die hard, it took me way too long to eventually decide to try the game myself, and from what I played back then, I ended up really liking it. It has been a hot minute though, so while I am waiting for the chance to replay through Doom II for a review (real life is a bitch), I figured I would replay this game to see if it still holds up, and unsurprisingly, it absolutely does. It is one of the most fun and unique co-op games that you could find on the SNES, and while it isn’t perfect, with some parts feeling unnecessary or lackluster, it is a joy ride from start to finish that deserves all the praise it can get.
The story is fairly simple, where a woman by the name of Annie loses her family due to the Kid Family abducting and killing them, so after seeking the help of a space bounty hunter known as Clint, the two of them go off to get revenge on the family in the most explosive and brutal way possible, which is almost as basic as a revenge story can get, but it doesn’t waste any time and gets you into the action right away, so I can get behind that. The graphics are pretty great, with all of the levels and enemies fitting both the western and steampunk aesthetic very well, and all of the enemies, characters, and bosses are full of life with animations galore that are pretty great to witness, the music is wonderful, matching the tone of the settings flawlessly and fitting for all of the gunplay that will be happening all throughout the game, the control can take a bit to get used to for those who have never played the game before, but they can get used to it fairly quickly, and it works well enough, and the gameplay, on the surface, is pretty typical, but the way that it is carried out makes it stand out from all other games at the time, and it works wonders.
The game is a shooting gallery title, where you take control of either Clint or Annie, go through six different levels full of plenty of different sections you can blast through, shoot up anything and everything that appears on screen, making sure to grab items by shooting them (makes sense to me) and dodge any bullets that are fired your way, gather plenty of different money items, bombs, and different weapons that can help you out against your foes along the way, and fight against plenty of bosses, ranging from the big and ruthless, to the small and fast, all of them being a joy to face for plenty of reasons. In any other title, all of this could be seen as typical for this era, with nothing else to show for itself, but the fact that it chooses this style of gameplay makes it a lot more unique and fun to blast through, especially with a friend.
Since you don’t need to worry about trying to reach the end of any kind of stage, or really any goal that isn’t right in front of you, the game prioritizes the gunplay over everything else, and it feels appropriately immensely satisfying, allowing to mow down plenty of enemies before you while making sure to apply the perfect dodging maneuvers. Not only that, but the different weapons you can acquire make it even more satisfying to annihilate whatever lays before you, having a much bigger range of fire then before, along with, of course, dealing much more damage. This especially rings true with the Vulcan Gun, which doesn’t last all too long, but whenever you have it, you feel UNSTOPPABLE, as everything seemingly goes down with just a few shots, and you can cover a lot of ground with it. And finally, one more noteworthy thing to note about the game is, again, the theme it has. It isn’t necessarily original, having a bombastic western setting with a whole lot of shit going on at once, but the inclusion of robots does, ironically, add a bit more life and charm to it, along with each blending into each other flawlessly, to the point where you can’t imagine it without either of those things.
With that being said though, the game isn’t perfect. While I do praise the main gameplay for being incredibly addicting and fun to mess around with, it doesn’t really change up at all throughout the whole game, aside from the places you go to and the enemies you fight, which can turn some people away if they aren’t drawn into this immediately like others. Secondly, while most of the bosses are completely original, there are quite a few that are repeated several times, which can make them tiring to fight whenever you run into them again. And finally, this is just a personal complaint myself, but it does kinda suck that all of the powerups that you do get throughout the game each have limited ammunition. Sure, it would probably be too unbalanced if they didn’t have ammo limits, but you could still take them away whenever you get hit by anything and be fine, because trust me, given the way this game works, you WILL get hit by something sooner or later.
Overall, despite its lack of variety and repeating bosses, Wild Guns is a fantastic title that has aged incredibly well over the past 30 years, one that manages to keep the gameplay fast and satisfying at all times, while not being too long to the point where you are just hoping it would end at some point. I would highly recommend it for those of you who love old-school co-op games, or any game for that matter with this level of energy and style, because with the right person beside you, I guarantee that you will have a blast with this title. It’s just a shame though that this never got any kind of sequel later down the line. Yeah, it did get a remaster with additional content, but that can only go so far! MAKE WILD GUNS 2, COWARDS!
Game #494
I had known about this game for a long time before I first checked it out, I wanna say since around 2015-2016, when I had watched a video of it on YouTube, and based on what I saw, it looked pretty fun and unique. However, because old habits die hard, it took me way too long to eventually decide to try the game myself, and from what I played back then, I ended up really liking it. It has been a hot minute though, so while I am waiting for the chance to replay through Doom II for a review (real life is a bitch), I figured I would replay this game to see if it still holds up, and unsurprisingly, it absolutely does. It is one of the most fun and unique co-op games that you could find on the SNES, and while it isn’t perfect, with some parts feeling unnecessary or lackluster, it is a joy ride from start to finish that deserves all the praise it can get.
The story is fairly simple, where a woman by the name of Annie loses her family due to the Kid Family abducting and killing them, so after seeking the help of a space bounty hunter known as Clint, the two of them go off to get revenge on the family in the most explosive and brutal way possible, which is almost as basic as a revenge story can get, but it doesn’t waste any time and gets you into the action right away, so I can get behind that. The graphics are pretty great, with all of the levels and enemies fitting both the western and steampunk aesthetic very well, and all of the enemies, characters, and bosses are full of life with animations galore that are pretty great to witness, the music is wonderful, matching the tone of the settings flawlessly and fitting for all of the gunplay that will be happening all throughout the game, the control can take a bit to get used to for those who have never played the game before, but they can get used to it fairly quickly, and it works well enough, and the gameplay, on the surface, is pretty typical, but the way that it is carried out makes it stand out from all other games at the time, and it works wonders.
The game is a shooting gallery title, where you take control of either Clint or Annie, go through six different levels full of plenty of different sections you can blast through, shoot up anything and everything that appears on screen, making sure to grab items by shooting them (makes sense to me) and dodge any bullets that are fired your way, gather plenty of different money items, bombs, and different weapons that can help you out against your foes along the way, and fight against plenty of bosses, ranging from the big and ruthless, to the small and fast, all of them being a joy to face for plenty of reasons. In any other title, all of this could be seen as typical for this era, with nothing else to show for itself, but the fact that it chooses this style of gameplay makes it a lot more unique and fun to blast through, especially with a friend.
Since you don’t need to worry about trying to reach the end of any kind of stage, or really any goal that isn’t right in front of you, the game prioritizes the gunplay over everything else, and it feels appropriately immensely satisfying, allowing to mow down plenty of enemies before you while making sure to apply the perfect dodging maneuvers. Not only that, but the different weapons you can acquire make it even more satisfying to annihilate whatever lays before you, having a much bigger range of fire then before, along with, of course, dealing much more damage. This especially rings true with the Vulcan Gun, which doesn’t last all too long, but whenever you have it, you feel UNSTOPPABLE, as everything seemingly goes down with just a few shots, and you can cover a lot of ground with it. And finally, one more noteworthy thing to note about the game is, again, the theme it has. It isn’t necessarily original, having a bombastic western setting with a whole lot of shit going on at once, but the inclusion of robots does, ironically, add a bit more life and charm to it, along with each blending into each other flawlessly, to the point where you can’t imagine it without either of those things.
With that being said though, the game isn’t perfect. While I do praise the main gameplay for being incredibly addicting and fun to mess around with, it doesn’t really change up at all throughout the whole game, aside from the places you go to and the enemies you fight, which can turn some people away if they aren’t drawn into this immediately like others. Secondly, while most of the bosses are completely original, there are quite a few that are repeated several times, which can make them tiring to fight whenever you run into them again. And finally, this is just a personal complaint myself, but it does kinda suck that all of the powerups that you do get throughout the game each have limited ammunition. Sure, it would probably be too unbalanced if they didn’t have ammo limits, but you could still take them away whenever you get hit by anything and be fine, because trust me, given the way this game works, you WILL get hit by something sooner or later.
Overall, despite its lack of variety and repeating bosses, Wild Guns is a fantastic title that has aged incredibly well over the past 30 years, one that manages to keep the gameplay fast and satisfying at all times, while not being too long to the point where you are just hoping it would end at some point. I would highly recommend it for those of you who love old-school co-op games, or any game for that matter with this level of energy and style, because with the right person beside you, I guarantee that you will have a blast with this title. It’s just a shame though that this never got any kind of sequel later down the line. Yeah, it did get a remaster with additional content, but that can only go so far! MAKE WILD GUNS 2, COWARDS!
Game #494
DragoonEffect
2 months ago
https://probablywork.com/superswitchclub/