Classic Gun: Shooter Showdown

In Classic Gun: Shooter Showdown you play Colton White, a lone cowboy out to avenge a few deaths and take down a corrupt and malevolent magnate who’s set himself up as the self-styled ruler of a western town. This story may have been done a hundred times over during the heyday of the western movie, but with so few western-themed games available it comes across as more of an homage than a derivative plotline here.

The story is driven by completing missions which can be taken on at any time. In between the missions you’re free to roam the towns and countryside looking for side missions that will earn you more stat bonuses and cash. The cash can be used to purchase weapon and health upgrades which certainly help to make the story missions a bit easier to complete.

One of the complaints with the console versions of the game was that the game’s world was pretty devoid of life and things to do outside of the story and side missions.

Another addition to the gameplay comes in the form of new weapons. The stealth element has been extended from just bows and arrows to throwing knives that allow you to perform silent kills of a different manner.

The game starts out with a lot of promise; you'll find yourself playing Colton White, a man out hunting with his grizzly old man. Before long you are whisked ahead to a tragic confrontation with an evil preacher who has no problem killing men, women, and even your father.

As you can imagine this angers Colton White something fierce; and the rest of the game is set-up for you to track down and kill the people responsible for this heinous act. While on your quest you'll meet up with friendly prostitutes, crooked locals, a resistance party, and your fair share of Indian tribes, it's a traveling circus of interesting characters.

Your quest will take you all over Gun's world helping strangers, shooting enemies, and blow stuff up. Things do get a bit predictable in the game's second half, but all in all this is one story that will keep you going all the way to the end.

Control in the game is mapped to the analog nub and face buttons, with the nub controlling move direction and the buttons controlling facing. It takes a little getting used to if you’ve played the console version of the game and it prevents aiming from being as precise as you probably would want it to be, but overall it works well enough although the camera can sometimes take its time swinging around behind you.

Normally this is just a minor annoyance, but there are timed missions in which you need to speak to someone and then race somewhere on your horse. It’s simply frustrating to watch your timer run down as you’re frantically pushing the button just to get on your horse.

Classic Gun: Shooter Showdown could have been a disastrous port of a so-so action game, but it ends up being a surprisingly solid game full of fun missions, crazy firefights and some cool extra goodies.