The worst gun in the west, pardner.
Wild West Shootout is a rail shooter from Zoo Games. It’s a pretty straightforward game; a player or two can pull out their Wii Zappers (or just use the controller bare, of course) and shoot their way through twelve levels of Wild West-themed fun. High scores and achievement-style accomplishments attempt to breathe some life into what is otherwise a bare-bones and easy game but, because of the aesthetics and overall lack of gameplay nuance, there isn’t much reason to return to the game after one time through. Actually, there isn’t much reason to recommend this game to begin with.
In a first-person viewpoint, the player is escorted through dreary saloons, down eerie canyons and through tranquil corn fields. Native Americans and bandits tend to occupy these areas, so players must, well, take them out. A standard pistol is the main weapon; six shots and it’s time to reload. An occasional shotgun power-up comes around from time to time, which shoots at a slower clip but has more powerful shots. The main objective is to take out a specific amount of each enemy in order to move on to the next area, but there are also caged animals that can be freed by shooting at their cages. Freeing the animals and taking out additional enemies are score-boosters, mostly, but they’re also key to earning the achievements.
The gameplay doesn’t change at all throughout the campaign. There’s nothing wrong with the gameplay; well, there’s nothing wrong with the gameplay being bland and uninspired. However, this is the first game in a while that made this reviewer very uncomfortable. Players take on the role of a cowboy and must shoot Native Americans. The Native Americans’ screams are heard as they fall to the ground and, like many video games, vanish from the screen once they’re vanquished. Aren’t we past this era in the methods to interpret history? Can’t we be a bit more progressive? Can’t we treat this whole subject matter with a bit more respect and dignity? This all just seems so horribly cliched and disrespectful. Worse, the Native Americans usually aren’t doing anything until the character shows up. They’re just wandering around the villages, minding their own business. If the player stays still for a few seconds, there won’t be any action, no violence, no progress by the game’s definition. Then, the violence inevitably starts (no bloodshed in a kids’ game, but violence nonetheless). Even worse, there are in-game achievements for killing 100 of each enemy type, including Native Americans. What’s the icon for this “accomplishment”? A headdress. Even if, by some strange stretch of the imagination, the player wants to get past all this and enjoy the game for what it is, it’s all played through in about forty-five minutes anyway.
This is just about the ugliest game on the Wii, bar none. The textures are horrendous, the gameplay models positively horrific and the environments an assault on the eyes. There seems to be some abstract, cartoony, Lucky Luke-style depiction of the Wild West going on here, but this just comes off as horrible. Poor coloring results in muddy-looking environments, and what’s even worse than the stupidly-grinning horse whose teeth stick out past its mouth are the stout, closed-eyed human characters. The saloons look just like the barns, and the plains look just like the canyons. Trees in this game are, quite literally, large, puffy, green spheres on top of muddy cylinders. No depth, no detail, no shadows, no intricacies, no anything. No real design at all! There are budget, late-to-the-market Playstation games that have more graphical finesse and a more refined presentation. Wild West Shootout is an unacceptably bad-looking game. To the game’s credit, though, there’s an excellent Wild West-inspired soundtrack that underscores the action and poor graphics. Honestly, it’s the best thing this game has going for it.
This game isn’t doing the on-rails shooter genre any favors. Purchasing this game for more than half a dollar would be all involved in the transaction a great disservice. Some developers have been creative with the genre and have shown it some love on this console. On the Wii, where this type of game survives in droves, Link’s Crossbow Training provides a similarly truncated experience but still with plenty of gameplay depth. Dead Space: Extraction takes the genre in some very interesting directions, and, even on the low-budget scale (as if Crossbow Training weren’t enough), Martian Panic may be a fun alternative. Wild West Shootout is best left in the dust.