Wild Guns

Moby ID: 6786
SNES Specs
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KABOOM!

Annie & Clint, two gunslingers, arrive at Carson City and get caught up in a gunfight. It's raining bullets and there are explosions everywhere. After an intense battle they enter the saloon where they dispose of every cowboy in sight while redecorating the interior. Our heroes flee the scene by climbing on the roof, but what's that sound? ... it's a HUGE robot!

Wild Guns is a shooter with a western & Sci Fi theme. Gameplay is somewhat similar to the Time Crisis & House of the Dead games, with the exception that the game isn't played from a first-person perspective but from a third-person perspective. You control your on-screen character as well as the aiming crosshair (at the same time). Select either Clint (yes, inspired by Mr. Eastwood) or Annie and shoot down tons of enemies while dodging bullets and jumping over incoming rockets.

After the Carson City level, the action continues in Desolation Canyon, an ammunition depot, a gold mine and a armored train (you can play these levels in any order). Finally there's a showdown with the big bad guy. Each of the 6 levels is divided into 3 sublevels. The 3rd one is always a boss-battle. During the game your standard weapon can be temporarily upgraded by collecting power-ups. If you want to create some serious mayhem you can detonate one of your bombs. Almost any object in the background can be destroyed.

Wild Guns has a two-player co-op mode. There's also a shooting gallery mode in which you can't die; this one is all about scoring as many points as possible.

Spellings

  • ワイルドガンズ - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (SNES version)

11 People (5 developers, 6 thanks)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.3 out of 5 (based on 17 ratings with 2 reviews)

Yihaa!! Outstanding action-packed blast-fest!

The Good
Wild Guns is a great example of a game with over-the-top gameplay and is amazingly fun to play. Combining Western & Sci Fi elements results in shootouts between a cute cowgirl armed with a single colt and a huge mecha robot. Of course the girl wins :-). Complete nonsense but that's what makes the game so much fun. The action is very intense and keeps on going (as a matter of fact I hardly had time to let go of the controls and capture a screenshot). It seems there's a big explosion about every two seconds. In contrast to traditional shooting gallery / lightgun games this game is played from a 3rd person perspective and you'll be busy dodging bullets as well. This only adds more action (BTW this isn't a lightgun game).

A big part of the fun are the interactive backgrounds; you can shoot at bottles of whiskey in the saloon, destroy cactuses in desolation canyon and break windows on several stages etc. Just take a look at the sceenshots to see how Carson City looks before and after the shootout. Sometimes you'll receive a power-up when you destroy an object (for instance the forklift truck at the ammunition depot).

The game looks very good and the graphics engine is fast, everything runs very smooth. I don't know the name of the special effects but the game has some pretty cool technical gizmos. My favorite one is the way the air trembles, because of the heat, after a big explosion. I like the artwork and the design of the sprites as well. I only wonder why the big crab at the end of the gold mine level is in the game. A coyote or rattlesnake would have been better, this isn't a Darius game.

Good music. Very up-tempo versions of western tunes. Some of the tunes immediately bring you in the right mood (= pumped up, bring 'em on!).

Two-player cooperative mode. Always fun.

The Bad
Too short, there are only six levels, each containing three sub-levels that take between 60 and 90 seconds to finish. Like the majority of the (console) action games released in the late eighties / early nineties this game is quite hard to finish, especially for those (like me) without superb reflexes. Wild Guns is not as hard as for example Contra or R-Type and with some practice I did fairly well on the first five levels but found the sixth level very hard to beat.

The Bottom Line
Perhaps the most action-packed game available for the SNES. Even repeated dying couldn't stop me enjoying this one.

BTW if you like Wild Guns you might also enjoy Cabal by Capcom.

SNES · by Roedie (5239) · 2002

Take your weapons

The Good
Wild Guns is one of those games that, because of its genre, has the essence of the arcade machines on it.

The story of the game, as we've seen in many other arts (remember the movie Wild Wild West), take place in an alternative Western, where guns and cowboy hats mix with robots and advanced technology. It seems that this strange jumble of genres doesn't work when they're together, but the results for this game are good enough.

We can choose between two main characters, a woman called Annie and a man called Clint (what a coincidence) as well as different clothes for each one, which is not something common in games of this genre.

The concept of the game is as simple as destroying everything that you see on the screen and avoid all the bullets fired by our enemies. We have two movements to dodge, the first one and the most useful is the classic dodge-roll, but we can also make a jump (which can be a double jump if we press again the button) as a second way to avoid the bullets. Talking again about the concept, the game is an action game, and we don't have hostages or civilians to hurt, so, the player will press the shoot button from the first second of the game, and he won't stop pushing it 'til the end of the game. Istn't it funny?

The players has different weapons (no matter which character, the weapons are the same for both). We have shotguns, grenade launchers and a powerful and deathly weapon (which is a gatling) that makes the player invincible for a time. Of course, we have powerful bombs that will kill everything on the screen, which are the best thing to use when we're running into difficulties. The most remarkable feature of the game is the lasso, with that, we can hold an enemy for a short time. It looks a bit stupid to use the lasso when we have those guns around, but when you know how to use it well it's something deciding for the adventure.

The game has six stages, the first one which is an introduction, and then four stages to finish in the order that we want. One we've done it, we have to face the final ending stage. Each stage has three parts (except the last one which has four), and each part has a mini-boss to defeat besides the big ending boss of the stage. We have also bonus stages to get higher scores (and gain some extra lives).

The game is not difficult, but as it's usually in those kind of games, you'll have to learn the weakness of your enemies to progress. The game has some difficulty levels and there are infinite continues, so, the game is not a big challenge for players.

Talking about technical aspects, graphics are as good as they can be for the 16-bit system of Nintendo, with different enemies and varied stages (from mines to a classic western saloon). FX and music are also good.

The Bad
The game is a bit short as well as easy, but, used to other impossible games of this genre it's not something so bad.

There are different bosses, but the game needs more mini-bosses for the parts of each stage because you'll fight against them a few times, maybe a pair more would have been enough.

Once you've finished the game, there are not many more things to do. The hardest level is not a big challenge if you've finished the normal one, so, once you've finished the hardest level the game becomes an anecdote on your shelves. To sum up, more personality needed.

The Bottom Line
Wild Guns is an action-packed game that will satisfy most of the players, addictive and perfect to play with a friend, but also funny for one player. A game which is a bit simple, but a game that will do the work for those who love games of this genre.

SNES · by NeoJ (398) · 2009

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Roedie.

Wii added by Charly2.0. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77.

Additional contributors: Rik Hideto.

Game added June 28, 2002. Last modified January 12, 2024.