In honor of this shoot em up issue are two games that bring back the classic ideas set forth by John Ford, Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood. The games are GUN for the XBox, XBox 360 (almost identical graphicly to the regular XBox Version) and Playstation 2 plus RED DEAD REVOLVER (the coolest NAME of the two!) for the XBox and Playstation 2. Both games take part in the anarchic, opium smoking, prostitute loving Old West of the late 19th century. These games continue the often false but romantic ideal of that era of never ending, heroic violence. First, I will mention the often boring game that is GUN. ~ Cris Blasty, Head of No-Fi "Game Reviews"


GUN
published by ACTIVISION, Platform: XBOX 360, XBOX, , 2005
Voice Acting: Thomas Jane, Kris Kristofferson, Lance Henriksen, Brad Dourif, Ron Pearlman
game reviewed by Cris Blasty


GUN starts out with your father teaching the basics of how to survive in the Old West. He teaches you some skills that will be useful later in the game. Surprisingly, the voice of your dad is Kris Kristofferson who, if he did not get these nature boy type roles, I don't think he would ever work in Hollywood again. Anyway, a boat trader arrives and your father and you board the ship to pick up supplies. During this simple task, a corrupt railroad magnate attacks the boat looking for a pendant that supposedly would lead him to a hidden treasure of gold and jewels. In the ensuing battle, you escape with your life, your father informs you that he is not your biological father, and he gets killed in battle protecting this pendant. From here, the game begins.

The game lays out the western part of the United States in an open world kind of way similar to the Grand Theft Auto Series. The problem I had was that you can travel from the area resembling Kansas to the area resembling Arizona in under 2 minutes (I have always wanted a horse that could gallop at mach speed). The world is very tiny considering the scope of the game. Plus, to gain better notoriety, you can engage in Old West culture by picking up a game of Texas Hold Em, doing Pony Express deliveries, herding cattle, and the like. Unfortunately, these tasks are all pretty damn boring and add nothing to the experience. With participation in all side quests and the main story, you can finish this in 8 to 10 hours. There are some interesting random events that occur like muggings from outlaws which you can shoot your way out or gallop quickly away from them. You can also give your digital horse a heart attack if you gallop it too quickly. My word of advice is if you really are interested, pick this one up as a rental and play it in one weekend when you have absolutely nothing better to do (Since some of you live in Los Angeles, that better not be the case.) Otherwise, you are not missing anything life shattering. This is the PALE RIDER of videogame westerns.


RED DEAD REVOLVER
published by ROCKSTAR, Platform: XBOX, PS2, , 2004
Voice Acting: Rob Bogue, Gregg Martin, Carrie Keranen, Chaske Spencer, Benton Greene
game reviewed by Cris Blasty


The next game is RED DEAD REVOLVER released back in 2004. This game again stole its plot directly from a John Ford movie. As a child, you witness the brutal murder of your family and you swear revenge against the bastards who orphaned you at such a young age. This game has incredible presentation. Rockstar (creator the Grand Theft Auto games) decided to give the game a graphic novel type of feel. Plus, the screen has a graininess on every level to make it seem like you are watching a 120 year old film. Every chapter takes place in a fixed level with a specific goal. It has all the classic levels (Indian territory, corrupt sheriff that needs to be killed, a mine level, a railroad car level, and a full on Mexican war level.) The game is incredibly fun and easy to learn. Plus, during Red's journey through the story, you get to play a pissed off, effeminate British guy trying to save his girl, an Indian, and a rogue Mexican general. This game is a good mix of every Western that you have ever seen including a great level filled with over-the-top violence reminding me of the classic film THE WILD BUNCH. Plus, you play through a level where you beat up hookers and start a bar fight (with broken beer glass and stupid bartenders which can be used as weapons), get involved in duels with some corrupt law enforcement and criminals, and fight one of the greatest boss battles ever against an undertaker hiding a gatling gun in his casket.

The game ends with you shooting it out with a governor and his men to exact the inevitable revenge. This game is a MUST PLAY. Besides bringing back all the typical Old West stereotypes, Rockstar paid for the rights to use Ennio Morricone's music. There is nothing like a whistling melody to get you in the mood to kill corrupt capitalists. The combination of all these elements leads to a rip-roaring good time. Pick this one up at your local store. It should be priced down to $15.

(Cris Blasty is a contributing writer for No-Fi "Magazine"
and shot a man in Brooklyn just to watch him die.)


GUN FIGHT
published by MIDWAY, Platform: Arcade Game, , 1975
game reviewed by Chris Beyond


In the mid 1970's people were reeling from Vietnam, the Nixon administration, unease in the Middle East, and bad fashion. We had become numb to the world around us and our fascination with electronic devices grew stronger with every month. It was a completely different world than we live in today.

Along comes a game called Gun Fight and video games were changed forever. In this game you and a friend both play dueling cowboys. One of you is on the left side of the screen and the other on the right. Luckilly the controls correlate with to the side of the character you control. There are two "joysticks" that you use to control your character. The smaller one on the left moves the character up and down and the large one on the right controls your aim and the trigger on that shoots one of the six bullets in your gun. You have about a minute to play, just like in real-life duals.

In between the two characters are a few cactus and a wagon that goes up and down the screen. As you could imagine this wagon is probably full of a family just moving into town to try to find their fortune only to find themselves trapped in the middle of a gun battle with lead bullets tearing through the wagon's sheet and eventually through their skin and muscle. This adds to the realism of the game. The battles themselves are fierce. Imagine bullets flying from the gun of your opponent and ripping through your leg, shattering your bones, or aiming at the face of your enemy and smiling just before the bullet blasts a whole new hole into his head. That is if you can get your shot past the cactus or wagons in your way. This videogame ushered in a new age of video game hyperviolence that would go on to influence other games with even less optimism like the apocalyptic Space Invaders and eventually the fun but depressing Robotron 2084, where you end up shooting not only invading robots and aliens, but also innocent adults and children. And people think that the Grand Theft Auto games are bad. At least they don't let you shoot children.

So while you don't really see any digital blood or gore, you do get to read the death cry of the defeated cowboy. The impact is huge. Maybe he had a family. Maybe his family were in that wagon. The pathos is almost too much. One can't help but to hang his head low even if his particular gun was the fallen cowboy's death-dealer.

So if you ever get a chance to play this game in your local arcade or some stranger's basement, please do. It's an emotionally charged game deep game about life and life-taking and it only costs a quarter to play!

(Chris Beyond is the creator of No-Fi "Magazine"
and would rather shoot a cactus than some guy in a funny hat.)


BOOT HILL
published by MIDWAY, Platform: Arcade Game, , 1977
game reviewed by Chris Beyond


Boot Hill is the action packed thriller to 1975's controversial Gun Fight. While Gun Fight was marked by its take on cowboy ultraviolence in the days of the old west, Boot Hill ups the ante by adding an actual western setting by way of reflecting the game onto a glass in front of a painting of an old dusty bisecting a run down town.

One interesting thing Midway did here was to add the menacing spectre of death hovering both mentally and physically over the one on one gun battle by way of a graveyard in the distance (the titular "Boot Hill" it would seem). As you play against your human or computer opponent, this may hang heavy on you. Maybe you just came from a funeral or have a missing person in your family. You wouldn't want to be reminded bout them and it could be an unexpected surprise when you first see the game screen.

The control scheme is the same as the first game in that you use one joystick to move the character and the other one to aim the gun. You fire the gun with the trigger embedded into the aiming joystick. Just remember that you only have six bullets

The one thing that hasn't changed in the game is the simple gameplay device of running around your side of the screen attempting to murder your oppenent. It's not easy though because there are cactus and wagons in the way and you find yourself having to shoot bits away from these things at a time in order to get your death dealing bullets into the legs, chest, skull, or hat of the other player.

Again, this isn't a game to be taken lightly. The fact that this sequel now puts you in an actual battleground, you may find yourself sucked into the game emotionally. Just remember that when you die in the game, you WON'T die in real life. Definitely worth a quarter to play this.

(Chris Beyond is the creator of No-Fi "Magazine"
and lets the undertaker measure him before a gunfight.)