This was a classic game, made infinitely easier by using the
NES Advantage, or another super-controller allowing for turbo. The basic setup is you’re a cowboy, referred
to several times as “lone gunman,” who has arrived the town of Hicksville to
kill a group of thugs who have been terrorizing the people – the Wingates. I remember the days when games were so few
that you could get away with having one that was utterly generic in every way,
unique only in that it was, for example, a cowboy game. Remember when if you wanted to play a
baseball game, you loaded up the cartridge called “Baseball,” and not some pretender called “Ken Griffey
Presents: MLB Season 2002 Extreme Innings!”? Anyway, while Gunsmoke may not have a very memorable plot or characters,
its gameplay was innovative and consistently fun, and still is almost 20 years
later. You kick your spurs down the main
street of Hicksville (to start with) at a steady rate, and baddies come at you
from all sides. As in the best games,
there are only two things to do, really: move and shoot. A shoots up and to the right, B up and to the
left, and both together fires straight ahead. This is an interesting way to set the controls
and allows for some
pretty complex tactics. The only problem
was tapping the buttons fast enough, and that’s of course where turbo came to
save the day. Occasionally you will
happen upon a townsperson who wants to talk. With your accumulated points, you can buy new weapons, ammo, or a
horse. The horse is fun, but I always
feel bad when it gets shot so I try not to rely on it. You must collect a wanted poster, or buy one,
before facing the boss you set out to kill at the beginning – the first, for
instance, is Bandit Bill, bearing a rifle and a bounty of $10,000. You move through towns, canyons, deserts,
Indian settlements, and forts, leaving a pile of bodies behind you – that is,
if they didn’t flicker and disappear a moment after dying horribly at your
hands. The opening music to this game,
I’d like to add, is quite well composed and grim for a Nintendo game, and I
recommend letting it play out completely before starting your rampage.
don't forget the connections btw gunsmoke and bionic commando! they're both made made by capcom, as commando was, and the gameplay is basically exactly the same in all three (the overhead battle sections in bionic commando, not the sidescrolling ones). you should dig up some info on the capcom team in the late 80s that developed all these games...
Posted by: C | 2005.03.08 at 10:30 AM
I think Diamond has a good point. Being an optimist, I would like to think that consistently participating in neurobic activities would be a consistent vehicle in strengthening the brain, but I also believe that change is the only constance. It would seem to me that the body would adjust to the neurobic activities that involve using one’s inferior hand to do things. Also, there’s only so many ways someone could take to get to work. It does, however, seem likely that coming up with new neurobic activities would be a neurobic activity in itself! Hmmmm…..
Posted by: moncler uomo | 2011.11.14 at 02:04 AM