The rousing, orchestra-hit-filled soundtrack (from Snatcher composer Motoaki Furukawa) fits perfectly with the gorgeous, expressive graphics these brilliantly blend the Hollywood Western style with a frisson of pure anime, resulting in a consistent, characterful experience that never betrays itself. Additionally, there are plenty of gimmicks to interact with, such as hanging barrels you can shoot down to squash your opponents flat, or mounted Gatling guns you can use to break through fortified doors later in the game. Enemies are dynamic in their pursuit and they'll emerge from windows to take potshots, or run on-screen to hurl a stick of TNT at you – which, naturally, you can throw back at them. You can enter saloons to get power-ups and scramble across suspended ropes hand-over-hand, flipping yourself up and over them to dodge bullets. As well as the expected eight-way shooting, you're able to execute a slide manoeuvre and leap from ground to the upper level of a stage, ala Shinobi (which recently saw a Sega Ages Switch release itself). Getting around is a breeze, and your character and their world are pretty versatile. It's tough to get through unscathed – and the bosses have plenty of tricks up their sleeves – but it's eminently doable, which is refreshing in the often painful world of arcade gaming. It's concise to a fault, with no level outlasting its welcome and the difficulty pitched surprisingly reasonably for a coin-op game interestingly, the SNES port back in the day was actually more difficult in places. Set pieces are varied and exciting, seeing your chosen vaquero run atop a herd of stampeding cattle, ride on horseback alongside a thundering steam train, or ascend a mountain to reach a Native American chief's settlement. We were a little surprised that Sunset Riders has made it to the Switch in an unedited form, given its cheerfully un-PC genre pastiche and stereotyped characters such as Chief Scalpem and Paco Loco – but here it is, all present and correct. One of Konami's best games ever and produced at the height of the company's powers, Sunset Riders is a multiplayer blast through a world inspired by the Spaghetti Westerns of yore we're talking cowpokes, saloons, can-can girls and a fistful of dynamite. The arcade original almost hit Xbox 360 as part of its ill-fated Game Room line, but this is the first time the original arcade version of Sunset Riders has been playable at home – short of buying your own cabinet.Īnd what a treat it is. Not officially available anywhere since making its arcade bow (outside of the well-intentioned but obviously weaker home ports on the SNES and Mega Drive, at least), Konami's phenomenally good Western-themed run n' gun Sunset Riders has finally been re-released as part of Hamster's superb Arcade Archives line.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |