Gunman Tales

Review

As with all cowboys, you make your way to the Far West with a view to finding a gold mine and becoming a rich man. While on your journey, you heard about an incredible treasure hidden somewhere in the Golden Valley. To access this treasure, you must find all four map pieces, which reveal where the entrance of these riches is kept! The downside is that another three bounty hunters know about it, too!  Which one of these four bounty hunters will get his hands on the most valuable prize of the Golden Valley? Will it be you, or one of the other three cowboys? All will be revealed soon, in Gunman Tales.     

Gunman Tales is a Pixel action/adventure game developed and published by FobTi Interactive, where you play one of four cowboys in pursuit of a treasure hidden in the Golden Valley.



The game can be played in an adventure, arcade or duel mode. In the adventure mode, you’ll be playing against 3 other cowboys; either friends (local multiplayers) or against the AI.

At the start of the adventure game, you’ll have to choose from one of the four gunslingers available to you. Each of them has a specific attribute which is shown above their head by an icon. The bomb icon represents the fact that your character handles dynamite better then the others, for example.   

From here, you’ll end up on a map. Each of the gunslingers will start on a different corner of the map, which is represented by a small house with their colours. Within the map, you have two towns, one mine, an Indian settlement and 12 other gun fight locations, which are represented by a red dot.

The gameplay is divided into a few phases; the first one is the turn-based phase, where each of the players (cowboys) can either move to their choice of location, or move towards one of the other gunslingers to challenge him in a duel. Whatever you decide to do, it will activate one of the other two phases; either the arcade-style or duel gameplay.

It is important to know that each of the characters has three lives to spare. So, if you die in a duel or one of the 12 gunfight locations, you’ll lose one of your three lives each time. Do this three times in a row and your game will finish rather quickly! The other way you can lose a life is if you decide to accept a bounty on an outlaw at the sheriff’s house in one of the two towns. You’ll have to shoot him down before he does, otherwise you’ll lose a life. In town, you can purchase new guns, go to the doctor to restore or purchase health potions, and maybe try your luck gambling at the local saloon.

I really enjoyed the gunfights gameplay. Your character is at the bottom of the screen, where you’ll have to move from right to left and vice versa, and shoot at enemies who appear from either the left or the right-side of the screen, shooting projectiles at you!  Enemy cowboys will shoot with guns and rifles, as well as throwing dynamite at you, while Indians will throw tomahawks and shoots arrows. You’ll also see chickens moving around these levels. Shoot at them and it will activate powerups, such as power guns and health potions, as well as barrels to stop enemies’ projectiles hitting you, and even hordes of cows that run over your opponents. Occasionally, they all become chickens and when you shoot at them, you’ll collect money! What you need to be careful of in these gunfights is how many hearts you have (three in your first fight). Each time a projectile hits you, you’ll lose a heart, and if you lose all of them, you’ll die. However, there is one bit of good news about these fights - your character will level up and earn an extra heart. Your call here is to eliminate a specific number of enemies within this stage and collect one or two rewards.

The duel phase is pretty simple, as you have to hit a specific key when the word bang is shown on the screen. Do it quicker than your opponent and you’ll earn all objects in his inventory, which might include a piece of the map. What I like in the duel is this black cat that moves towards the centre of the screen bringing bad luck to one of the dualists. Very funny!

Also, beware of the werewolf; it usually comes out in a full moon and can be tricky to kill.

Manage to collect the four map pieces and it will be time to face the guardian of the lost treasure. This is going to be fun, as you’ll have to defeat three different parts of the guardian. If you’re successful, you’ll earn one loot bag. Well, you’ll have another 11 to get - good luck!

In terms of the difficulty, you can play as normal, Clint Eastwood level or not! I must admit that the Clint Eastwood level didn’t make my day!

Great pixel graphics and the music is very cool. You can change a few settings such as fullscreen, audio on or off, retro effect on or off, or whether or not to use the mouse. Personally, I would use the mouse with this game. I did try with the gamepad, but for me the experience was less enjoyable; I guess everyone has their own preferences. I do feel that the game should have more content. It’s fun and it is good for what it is. I think it would have been better if we had additional gunfight scenes.


Positives

+ Great Pixel graphics
+ Play by yourself or against three of your friends (local)
+ Three levels of difficulty
+ Easy to learn and play
+ Achievements

Negatives

- I didn’t like playing with the gamepad
- No trading card as yet

Review Summary

Retrieve the Lost treasure of the Far West in this fun retro action/adventure game!

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Zeepond Rating: 6/10

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