The old arcade game is revived without the gun, but still is addictive and fun as it was back then.
User Rating: 8 | Point Blank DS DS
Point Blank was a classic arcade game I used to play back in the day, and used to own it on the PS1. The game consisted of many mini games which you played using a special light gun controller. The game was fun, especially since you played it using a gun and took skill since you had to aim accurately and react fast. However, the DS doesn't come with a gun, and instead you use the stylus. Because of this, I doubted this game would be fun. Using a stylus is much easier since you are closer to the screen and can tap more accurately than you would aim through a gun. However, Point Blank still has an abundance of charm and somehow manages to capture most of the fun. The main game gives you 4 stages, then a bonus round, followed by another set of 4 stages and a final bonus finale. You get 3 lives and failing a stage means you lose a life, but then you proceed anyway. Making a mistake in the mini-game like shooting a wrong target also sees you lose a life, but not all of the mini-games have this attribute. This can mean you lose all 3 lives on some stages, or just 1 no matter how bad you play. However, the life system seems more of a homage to the arcade and doesn't seem to affect much, since you have unlimited continues. There isn't that much to do on the game besides keep playing over and over again in the aim to better your scores, but it really is surprising how many times you come back. Each play through is different since you play 8 random games and there are nearly 40 mini games in total. The mini games targets usually feature cardboard cut-out gangsters/ninjas, ducks, coloured targets, cuckoos. One Point Blank classic features cardboard cut-out gangsters popping up as the camera pans from left to right and you must shoot them before they drop down again, however, reacting too fast can be your downfall, as civilians also pop up which you will lose a life if you shoot. Another classic involves cuckoos popping out of doors from a house. On the higher difficulties, the games' targets occasionally seem impossible to achieve and its frustrating when you hit all the targets as fast as you can, only for it to say you needed to shoot 25 and you only got 23.
