Wild Guns Reloaded was quite the surprise announcement. I don’t think anyone ever expected a shooter from the SNES days to revived and updated in 2016. Let alone by the original development team. However, that’s not a bad thing at all. There are many precious gems from that era that often get overlooked. The original Wild Guns is a game that sadly, I didn’t have the pleasure of playing. I have however seen playthroughs and it’s a pretty intense ride, with an awesome soundtrack. So how does Natsume’s modern day revamp of it hold up? Read on and find out.
Wild Guns Reloaded allows you take control of four characters and embark on a fast paced shooting adventure. Controls are very simple. While not shooting you walk left and right and when firing you’ll instead move the reticle on screen. Your character can also jump and you’ll need to utilize this to dodge shots headed at you. Thankfully in most cases you’ll see a “watch out” speech bubble appear by your character to inform you a shot is headed your way. Other times though (usually with bosses) you’ll have to anticipate an attack is coming instead. One of the really neat features about this game is the fact you can counter-shoot bullets. In fact, this is a key mechanic for victory. Below your lives counter is a meter. When it fills you’ll have access to the awesome Gatling gun and can pretty much wreck anything and everything that comes after you. Speaking of guns let’s talk weapons.
In addition to your regular gun and the Gatling gun, you’ll have access to other weapons such as shot guns and machine guns. These will be very helpful as you continue to fight off the robot hordes (remember this was made in the 90’s), and blast your way towards the bosses. And let me tell you, these bosses mean business. The regular enemies are easy enough to handle, but the bosses require you to memorize their patters and how to dodge each attack. This sounds complicated, but in reality it’s not that bad. Remember this is very much a twitch reflex game and as such nothing gets overly difficult. The game feels very fair and the mistakes I made felt like my own. With each successive playthrough I ended up proceeding further and further. I wasn’t able to complete Stage 1, but I did reach the stage boss. To get to him however I had to clear two smaller areas each with their own area boss. This means the action is fast and furious. You’re always on your toes and moving about. Thankfully when things get bad you have access to dynamite which are basically your bombs for this game. But be careful, one hit means death and you only have three lives. So as fun as this game sounds are there any weaknesses?
Well I have only one complaint and it’s a rather minor one. I think the graphics need just a little touching up. Some of the enemies give the impression of being a little too blocky. It feels true to the SNES’ resolution, but that doesn’t exactly look great on an HD TV unless it’s touched up a bit. I think some simple smoothing out of the sprites would help just a bit. Nothing too major as the game is trying to capture the look and feel of the SNES game, but just enough so that it doesn’t appear as pixel. Outside of that I had a ton of fun with this one.
I’d recommend Wild Guns Reloaded. It’s a ton of fun and will even include four player local co-op. In addition, the game will actually have new stages as well as the returning old ones to make for a longer experience. Finally, Natsume is looking into possibly making a collector’s edition for the game. Let them know what you think about this by Tweeting at them or tagging them in Facebook. Even if that doesn’t happen though, for $30, I think this is well worth a try.
