Developer: Jaleco Publisher: Jaleco Release: 03/28/89 Genre: Action
I love Sunset Riders. It was one of the few arcade games that was able to take my attention away from TMNT. And the superb SNES port remains one of my favorite games for the system. Surprisingly the Famicom Disk Service had a cool little title that was similar a full two years before that classic. Big Challenge! Gun Fighter is a solid run and gun action game that only suffers due to padding. Do not let this relatively unknown gem pass you by.
Gun Fighter stars a lone cowboy on his trek through the Wild West to take a gang of thugs terrorizing the city. The goal of each level is to reach the end level boss at which point you fight them in a one on one duel. But to reach them you must first kill a designated amount of enemies in each stage first. Once you reach the end of the level if you have not hit your quota it loops until you do so. This number increases with every level meaning you will more than likely go through at least three or four loops in the later stages.
Initially you are only armed with a simple revolver. Unlike titles like Contra ammo is limited however most enemies will drop ammo randomly. The randomness is enough that if you waste bullets it is entirely possible to run out. There is a NPC that will sell you 10 bullets for cheap but you can only buy it once per loop. Luckily after the first level you gain new weapons. The first is the knife which uses no ammo. The drawback is that it is thrown at a diagonal angle. The boomerang similarly uses no ammo and even comes back once thrown however its range is short. Dynamite comes last and causes a big explosion that covers a wide radius. Unfortunately it consumes five bullets which make its use minimal.
Normally managing ammo in an action game like this is dumb. But the pacing and the situational use of your weapons adds a strategic element to gameplay. Generally unless you are completely reckless you will rarely run out of bullets. But the times when bullets are not dropping becomes harrowing. If you want to go through as few loops as possible you will need to use the knife to take out the oddly placed gunmen on top of unreachable buildings. The stupid throwing arc makes this harder than you would expect. Considering they are usually grouped together and with other enemies you are better off skipping them. The later levels give enough ammo that you can play around with the dynamite but I still preferred the boomerang. I would not have minded one more weapon but the game is not so long that the limited options are a detriment.
The weakest element of Gun Fighter is its boss battles. These first person battles aim to mimic a classic Wild West duel. But they are so brain dead simple they should not have bothered. Pressing B brings up the cross hairs at which point you have a limited window to damage the boss before they attack. They wait so long to attack you have to actively try to lose. It is cool that after each shot your cross hair moves to simulate gun recoil but it does not add to the challenge.
As far as first impressions go Gun Fighter’s initial level will make you think this will be a difficult journey. With the revolver as your only weapon you must watch your bullet count like a hawk. Many enemies are impossible to reach as well. But from the second stage onward it becomes significantly easier. The extra weapons allow you to take out every enemy if you choose and health drops more than ammo. What little platforming is present is rudimentary at best. Even though you will loop each stage at least two or three times the levels are short. Don’t get me wrong, it is annoying no matter how fast it is. But at least it is a painless process. Personally I would have preferred more levels over the blatant padding but I can see what they were going for.
In Closing
Big Challenge! Gun Fighter is a low profile release that is virtually unknown to this day. It has its faults but overall I found it to be a solid action game. As I explore the Famicom Disk System library gems like this stand out and make for easy recommendations.
