Well, why not?
I loved it in the arcade 20 years ago. What could possibly go wrong with a 3DS conversion? Nothing! As it turns out, actually, surprisingly little went wrong. And it’s still a pretty good game.
Unlike every other home version I’ve ever played, the full motion video is clear and good quality. Unfortunately, it’s a bit small and that did make one of the bits hard to play as it was virtually impossible to see a bandit appear in a tiny window, but now I know he’s there, it isn’t an issue.
I did wonder if the controls were going to be a problem. You see, the video plays out on the top screen, but that isn’t a touch screen, so to shoot you use the bottom screen. You’d expect to tap the screen to pull the trigger, but that isn’t how it works either. Bear with me:
Dragging the stylus around the bottom screen steers a crosshair on the top screen. You then use the L button (or the R button, I expect – I didn’t try it) to pull the trigger. To reload, you have to take the stylus off the screen and press L. It sounds fiddly, I know, but it actually feels surprisingly natural. Especially for the showdowns, where you have to reload then fire quickly. Honest. It works out great.
The actual game is the same as it ever was – some FMV sections where you shoot bandits before they shoot you. It’s just a glorified shooting gallery, which, for the most part, play out exactly the same every time. A couple of locations have randomly positioned hidden bandits that pop up, or you have to shoot different items on the screen, but you’re not going to get a different experience each time. A limitation of the laserdisc format, really.
There’s terrible acting, particularly the barkeeper who seems to give you the eye, and it’s all a load of cheese, but despite this and being short (although I’ve yet to manage to complete it – I die at Mad Dog’s hideout!), it’s lots of fun.
