An overlooked classic
Wild Guns is a shooter similar to games such as Cabal or Blood Bros. where the player controls one of two gun slingin' heroes named Clint and Annie. Players must survive a section before time runs out to move on to the next section. When enemies are killed though the timer goes down faster, so it's important for players to shoot down any enemies in sight to get the timer down to zero. Usually when the section's time is up, the player fights a mini-boss who must be killed before they move on. On the third or fourth section (varies by level), the player takes down a much bigger boss who takes a lot of hits to kill. Once this task has been accomplished, the stage is over.
The player's initial gun isn't going to cut it to get through the game for most players, but thankfully there's a variety of other guns that the player can get to help them out such as a shotgun or machine gun to help (or hinder) their progress. These weapons have limited ammo though, so beware! If the player is really desperate, there's a limited supply of bombs they can use to wipe out the enemies on screen or to help destroy a boss faster. Once the player shoots a certain amount of enemies and fills up a guage, they get an extremely powerful Vulcan cannon that only lasts for a short while.
The game is split up into six stages with three or four sections apiece. While some might complain that the game is short, it's actually a pretty good thing, because this game is challenging. The player only has two lives and if they lost all of them on the stage, it's game over and the player must start over or select a different stage. This game will definitely take quite a bit of practice!
While the game is hard, the player thankfully has a variety of moves to help avoid incoming fire. If the player is not shooting, they can do a jump. If the player is shooting, they can do a duck and roll. This can be a problem sometimes because the player could accidentally roll into incoming fire. This can be annoying if the player only has a life left and does this, but some practice will help.
As for the rest of the controls, they work out pretty well. If the player is not shooting, they are moving back and forth. The screens are pretty static overall with only a little bit of scroll, so moving will mostly be used to avoid oncoming fire. Once the player is firing their gun, movement is moved to the crosshair. The controls may take some getting used to initially, but as it's been stressed multiple times before, practice helps.
The game also has two player co-op where a second player takes control of the other character and this definitely works in the players favor. If the players don't feel like going through the stages, there's a one-on-one versus mode where the players go through different mini-stages shooting various targets. Whoever gets the most points is the winner. It's not much, but it's a decent time waster.
As far as the graphics go, they look pretty good. The giant robot bosses are fairly detailed and the animation is pretty good.
The music is also great with catchy tunes that sound like they came straight out of an arcade game.
In the end, Wild Guns is a great game. Even though it's a fairly expensive game these days, anybody who can get their hands on it certainly should.