Wild Guns

Wild Guns
File:SNES Wild Guns cover art.png North American cover art
Developer(s)	Natsume
Publisher(s)	Natsume
Designer(s)	Shunichi Taniguchi
Programmer(s)	Toshiyasu Miyabe Hiromichi Komuro
Composer(s)	Hiroyuki Iwatsuki Haruo Ohashi
Platforms	Super NES
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Shooting gallery
Mode(s)	Single-player, cooperative multiplayer

Wild Guns (ワイルドガンズ, Wairudo Ganzu) is a 1994 space western shooting gallery video game developed by Natsume for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The story follows Annie, a young woman who, with the help of Clint the bounty hunter, is seeking revenge for the death of her family. The game places the player in control of either Clint or Annie as they shoot down enemy robots in a Wild West setting with steampunk and sci-fi influences. The gameplay mechanics were influenced by games such as Dynamite Duke and Blood Bros., while the setting and character design drew ideas from the Western genre and the science fiction manga Cobra.

Development lasted five months on a small budget with a team of only three core members and two sub-staff. The team leads had previously worked together on The Ninja Warriors (1994) for the Super NES, and so chose to develop for that system despite more powerful hardware being available. Wild Guns received positive reviews at its initial release, and in retrospective reviews is now considered a cult classic. Critics have praised the gameplay of what has become a niche genre, as well as the cooperative mode and graphical attention to detail. The game was re-released on the Virtual Console for the Wii and Wii U. A new game titled Wild Guns: Reloaded for PlayStation 4 is due for release in fall 2016 and will feature original gameplay with enhancements such as additional characters and stages.

Gameplay

Wild Guns is a shooting gallery game with an American Wild West setting along with sci-fi and steampunk influences. The gameplay combines elements from third-person shooters and light gun games in a similar fashion to Cabal and Blood Bros.. There are six levels, each with two stages, followed by a mini-boss, and then a third stage with a final boss. In addition to single player, cooperative gameplay is available, as well as a target practice mode allowing two players to compete to achieve the highest score. The story follows a young woman named Annie seeking revenge against the Kid family for abducting and killing her own family. She seeks help from renown "space" bounty hunter Clint. Although Clint doesn't need Annie's assistance, she insists to help him, claiming she has a personal vendetta against the Kid family and is a skilled shooter.

File:Wildguns4.png

Annie firing at the boss in the first stage

The player controls either Clint or Annie in the foreground and must shoot at enemies in the background while also dodging enemy fire. Using the D-pad will move the character, but while holding down the fire button, it makes the gun reticle move instead. Shooting and moving at the same time is not possible. While the gun is holstered, the player can jump, dive, and roll to evade gunfire. A "Look Out!" text bubble will appear when one can dodge bullets. Some enemies will throw dynamite sticks at the player, but these can be tossed back. A lasso can also be used to temporarily stun enemies.

Both enemies and their bullets can be shot down. Defeating enemies will sometimes reveal item boxes, which can hold precious metals such as gold and silver for extra points, and bombs. Only five bombs can be held at a time, which can be used to clear the screen of enemies. Weapon upgrades may also appear after defeating certain enemies. These weapons, such as shotguns and machine guns, will increase the player's firing speed and/or damage output. When a player's bullets hit an enemy, a gauge at the bottom of the screen will gradually fill. Once filled, the player will be awarded with a "Vulcan gun," the most powerful weapon in the game which also grants invincibility. The gauge will then begin to deplete and the Vulcan gun will disappear once empty.

Development

File:Wild Guns concept.png

Clint and Annie were designed to be emblematic of the American frontier period

Development of Wild Guns began when a small team of Natsume staff was awaiting for their next subcontracted work to begin. They were asked to create a game quickly and cheap. The team consisted of three core members: Shunichi Taniguchi for game design and graphics, Toshiyasu Miyabe for programming, and Hiroyuki Iwatsuki for sound. Two other people helped as sub-staff. Despite 32-bit hardware already being available, the team chose to develop for the Super NES because the three had worked together previously on The Ninja Warriors for that system and did not consider the system dead yet. Development of Wild Guns lasted around five months and was led by Taniguchi.

Wild Guns was heavily influenced by Dynamite Duke and Blood Bros. during development, so much so that the team subconsciously designed characters in a similar manner to characters from those games. The space western setting was largely influenced by the Cobra manga. The screen shaking and mirage-like effects that occur after explosions were influenced by RoboCop 3 (1993). When composing the music for Wild Guns, Hiroyuki Iwatsuki drew upon a western soundtrack "Best Of" CD for influence that Natsume provided him. He enjoyed listening to the CD both during and after development. The music was created using PC-98s, a Roland W-30 keyboard, and a MIDI sequencer. Some sounds were from the Roland Sound Canvas series.

Originally the reticle could only move up and down, and lateral movement was done by moving the player side-to-side. This was found to be cumbersome and changed to the final controls. The "Look Out!" text bubble was added because of difficulty judging bullet distances due to the screen's artificial 3D depth. Clint and Annie were dressed in clothing that was emblematic of the time period, and Annie's dress was chosen over jeans to avoid overlapping with Clint's design and to enable easier animation. Their names were suggested by the American Natsume offices. Due to the game's low budget, voice actors were not used and instead Taniguchi's voice was recorded in the office bathroom for Clint.

Reception and legacy

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score GameRankings 79% Review scores Publication Score AllGame EGM 8/10 IGN 8/10 Nintendo Life 9/10 Nintendo Power 3.3/5

The North American version of Wild Guns was set to be released in the third quarter of 1994 and was reviewed at the time, but the release was unexpectedly delayed until third quarter 1995. Five reviewers at Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Wild Guns a unanimous score of 8 out of 10, citing the cooperative multiplayer mode and challenging levels as the game's strongest points. They declared it one of the best shooters on the SNES and compared it to the Neo Geo game NAM-1975. GamePro praised the game for its intense action, fun cooperative multiplayer mode, colorful graphics, and ability to shoot almost any on-screen object. They remarked that the game is difficult even on easy mode, but that players are rewarded for perseverance. Nintendo Power found the game to have good graphics and control, and complemented the game for providing both male and female playable characters. However, they believed the game was not as challenging as other shooters. A 32X version was reportedly planned for 1996, but was never materialized.

In a retrospective Virtual Console review, IGN's Lucas M. Thomas commended Wild Guns' gameplay depth and its detailed visual presentation. He acknowledged the game's difficulty, even on easy mode, but praised the game as one of the best examples of the niche shooting gallery genre. Mat Allen of Nintendo Life found the game to be an excellent example of what the Virtual Console is for: providing gamers chances to experience quality games that were overlooked in their time. He also highlighted the release as providing a cheap option to play a game which has now become an expensive collector's item. Critics and Natsume themselves have acknowledged Wild Guns as a cult classic. Todd Ciolek of GameSetWatch cited Wild Guns as one of the best games in a genre that has become a lost art.

A new title called Wild Guns: Reloaded for PlayStation 4 was announced in 2016 and will be showcased during the 2016 E3 video games convention and will release in the fall. The game will be developed by the original team and will feature classic characters and stages but also enhance the original by adding more playable characters, enemies, stages, and up to 4-player support.

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

• Wild Guns at MobyGames
• Wild Guns at GameFAQs

• 'Might have been' - Wild Guns Gamesetwatch.com.