Wild West Guns: Because what else are you gonna do in the old West other than shoot bandits?

If the last E3 was any indication, Nintendo seems to have all but abandoned the prospect of making any decent first-party titles in favor of games that make adults in business suits dance around like jerks. With Nintendo obsessed with more "casual" games such as "Wii Music" and "Wii Sports", its up to the relatively green indie developers on WiiWare to come up with something worth shaking my Wiimote at. One such attempt at this is Gameloft's "Wild West Guns", which is now available on the Wii shop Channel for 1000 points. And believe it or not, there is a fun and charming, although admittedly simple, game to be had here.

Premise

There is no real "story" to speak of. You appear to be a sheriff (or Lone Ranger, or "bad ass Bounty hunter" as I like to imagine) in a town in the Old West. Using your trusty Six shooter, you must shoot your way through six chapters with three stages each. Each chapter contains two mini-games, followed by an extended rail shooting sequence where players face off against a waves of bandits, badmen, renegade Indians, and suicide bombing Mexican Midgets (I swear that is an actual activity you perform in this game). You can go it alone, or invite a friend in either Co-op or Vs.

There is definitely an undercurrent of nostalgia to this game. The game harkens back to the light gun arcade shooters of the mid-90s, such as "Point Blank" or "Mad Dog McCree" (without the corny live actors, of course). It even seems reminiscent of old shooting galleries of Carnivals, fairgrounds, and amusement parks (ask your grand parents, they'll know what I'm talking about).

Gameplay, Level design and Graphics

"Wild West Guns" takes after its Arcade and Midway predecessors closely. You gain points for shooting targets while gaining score multipliers for hit streaks and not getting shot. There is plenty of variety in the mini-games, despite the fact that most of them distill down to "shoot enemy/target X in Y amount of time". This simplicity is salvaged by some truly clever level design. The levels have secret targets (hanging signs, TNT detonators, horse troughs, etc) that can be shot for bonus points in addition to regular points. Secret targets comes off as more of a novelty at times, since regular targets shot in succession wield more points, but they never take away from the game play and finding them adds a little variety to the game play.

The graphics are well enough for a budget title, but don't expect "Super Mario Galaxies" quality graphics here. This is a budget title on the Wii and it shows.

Controls

The controls are pretty simple and can be handled by anyone even distantly familiar with the Wiimote's mechanics:

1. Point Wiimote at thing you want dead/shattered/"blowed up".
2. Push A or B
3. Thing dies/shatters/"dun gets blowed up"

In other words, anyone who has WiiPlay or any other Wii Party game won't have any trouble. You can use the Wii Zapper too, but since I don’t have one and don’t know anyone who will admit to buying one, I'll move on.

Difficulty & Replayability

The game offers enough of a challenge, but veterans of Arcade light gun games (or even Wii Party games) will be able to cruise through it in less than an hour (if that). Unlike earlier light gun games, it is also nearly impossible to "lose". You have a point quota you need to fulfill in order to reach the next chapter and if you don't, you have to replay the current chapter until you do. Some may find this too easy, but I see it as casual gaming alternative to the old light gun dilemma of "goddammit I didn't see that guy in the corner of the screen!" Xbox arcade fans will be pleased there are achievements to add some replayability, but I unlocked about 70 percent of them on the first play through. Overall, once you've played this game, you may not feel compelled to play it again.

Judgment

Difficulty and replay issues aside, "Wild West Guns" presents itself so damn well its hard not to like it. The "Wild West shooting gallery" aesthetic is always lovable and still works today. This is a game for people who pine for the old days “point blank” and “Police Trainer”. It’s a pleasant walk down "light-gun arcade" memory lane, a time-travel back to the days when it was fully acceptable to aim your gun at a bad guy, point and pull the trigger. If this were a full Retail title, I would be tempted to give it a middle of the road "try". Since it’s only a mere 1000 Wii points, however, it is well worth the purchase.

Judgement: Get it