Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

Isn't it always the way? You wait for nearly a whole year for a Nintendo light gun game to appear on the Virtual Console and then two arrive at once! Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...   

Hogan's Alley
Wild Gunman

All of the NES light gun games have always been something of a curiosity to me, as I can personally only recall playing Duck Hunt on an actual NES at some point in the early Nineties while over at a friends house one afternoon, it was a really fun and rather novel experience which I'll never forget, indeed it wasn't until later that I would acquire my own NES with a copy of the game but by that time there were already so many other games to play - nothing really changes in that respect -  so I don't think I ever ended up playing it more than a handful of times.

So it's only now upon its Virtual Console debut that I've actually had the chance to properly play Hogan's Alley as it happens, well aside from playing Micro-games based on the title in Wario Ware but that doesn't exactly count plus it's not the same as using a touch-screen is basically cheating surely? In any case we are using the Wii remote here for this title seeing as Nintendo has rather brilliantly recoded the game to work with this more modern technology - which is just as well seeing as the old NES Zapper only works with CRT TV's just like all the old light guns - so it really is just a case of picking up and playing; though if you happen to have a Wii Zapper shell then I would advise using it for extra autheticity as along with the emulated trigger sound coming from the Wii remote speaker it really puts you in the mindset for shooting bad guys... or at least cut-outs in this case.

So I shoot the one on the left... right? Bang! Oops.

It all ties into the brief background story which is that you are a Police Officer - presumably a rookie - and Hogan's Alley is where your target practice takes place, or at least that's how it appears to be to myself at least. Not that it's terribly important as it's just an excuse to shoot stuff, you get three games to choose from as well; Game A lines up three targets for you to shoot with the catch being that probably only one or two of them will actually be bad guys whereas the rest are civilians but you don't know until the last moment when the cutouts spin around to reveal if they are friend or foe, by that time you have mere moments to react and if you fail to shoot a bad target or shoot a good one by mistake it does down as a "Miss" of which you are allowed only ten similar to how in Duck Hunt you could only have that amount of ducks "Fly Away" from you... except here you don't get an annoying smug dog chuckling away at your misfortune.

Onto the slightly more variable Game B which puts you in the outdoors - presumably at night because of the black background - within training grounds which feature many different buildings where there are plenty of places for a deadly cardboard cutout to strike! Thankfully they only seem to appear one at a time so they don't hunt in packs, although your reaction times will need to quicken up as this mode certainly is faster than the first one which is more predictable; upon punching holes in many pieces of cardboard - ready for recycling! - the stage scrolls to reveal a new layout so at the very least it attempts to keep things interesting for the player.

Because everyone knows bad guys hide out in the Gun Shop!

Then finally we have Game C which is called "Trick Shot" as it varies from the other two games modes, many of you may remember it as a "Boss Stage" from Wario Ware Touched!! In any case the goal of this game is to keep shooting tin cans so that they remain airborne until touching down on any one of the walls on the far-left side of the screen. In itself this may sound relatively simple, yet when you take into account that upon each wall there is an assigned points value which varies - rather wildly - from three hundred points at the top, to eight hundred points in the middle, right up to five thousand points down at the bottom; naturally you'll shoot a few cans thinking that you'll land every one on the low shelf for the most points but when you have three cans in the air at once your strategy will soon change lest you wish to drop all the cans earning you a "Miss" and - if this was real life - potentially a fine for failing to recycle. It's a fun high-score mode in any case.

While it might not be the most detailed NES title I think this is easy to forgive being that it's a title which is very much about functionality over fidelity, also I'm rather fond of the range of comical expressions which adorn the faces of the cut-out characters as you can almost instantly tell which ones you are meant to shoot from the looks on their faces minus some brief confusion for the ones which are wearing simarly coloured clothing. There's little to the audio aside from a few jingles which play at the start and at the end of each game but then you'd hardly be expecting background music so it's easy to forgive it this, especially when the sound effects are so charming including the aforementioned emulated "click" of the trigger which the Zapper is famous for.

Gotta... go for the... big score, or... 800 is good.

Perhaps this title won't last you a long time being that it's rather simplistic by today's standards, however in a genre which seems to be less prevalent these days I believe that Hogan's Alley still has its place, especially now that its future is at the very least assured so long as Wii remote support is around for current or indeed future Nintendo consoles or at the very least a standalone peripheral to ensure its compatibility. In this moment though at least at long last this slightly rough but enjoyable gem is easily playable on modern HDTV's and being that it's priced at just below three pounds and fifty pence there really isn't a lot to complain or even think about, so grab your digital wallet along with your mock-zapper and get blasting!  

Verdict : An alley which is well worth taking a stroll down, weapon in-hand.

Notably famous for being "That game from Back to the Future Part II" it seems that Wild Gunman is one of those games garnering cult status more for its cultural impact rather than what it's like as an actual game, personally I think that the arcade machine is amazing and is one of those rare examples which you don't see any more, featuring some glorious Wild West inspired cabinet artwork plus a pistol to match, it most certainly looked the part. But how does the game stack up these days? Many of us will likely never get to play on an original arcade machine, possibly not even the original NES version in its cartridge form due to the change in TV technology since its release! So it would seem that IR recognition from the Wii remote along with your gun shell of choice - if you have one spare - is the way to go if you want to engage in virtual quick-draw shootouts.

Hey gunman, there's a snake in your boot!

So with no notable story to speak of - aside from outlaws appear and you shoot them - you will likely be going for Game A first which puts you up against a single outlaw, they will walk up to the middle of the screen, turn to you and then at a random moment will shout "Fire!" it's at this point that you need to have already lined up your shot as you hopefully shoot them dead in the digital dirt before they can do the same to you. If you miss three times then you're through but so long as you keep killing all the bad guys then the reward money keeps going up as does your score, you will always know in advance just how fast the trigger-finger of your opponent will be as it is displayed at the top of the screen along with your own reaction time; refer to it at all times as you prepare as it's an invaluable tool for eventually the gap between your shots and theirs will inevitably get ever closer until presumably you can't keep up; though it should be noted that after one hundred rounds the counter does reset even though your score continues to soar.

Going into Game B you will have not one but two outlaws to outwit, this is where pattern recognition comes in to a lesser extent as you'll need to choose which one to gun down first before then taking out the other one almost instantly less you want to meet a rather intimely end, if you can guess which one will pull the trigger on you first then you're already half-way to victory. In the third option Game C you will be tasked with protecting the town as you are placed just outside of a Saloon which has the usual iconic doors in addition to four windows, two at ground level plus two on the balcony; you'll need to keep a close eye on where each assassin will appear before shooting them at the right moment, it certainly keeps things interesting even if it's just another variation on the core concept.

I win again! Works every time...

I feel like this is easily one of the more visually interesting games in the Light Gun series to have been re-released so far, while Duck Hunt was quite simple being that it was the first and Hogan's alley seemed quite limited in its scope; Wild Gunman goes for the most detailed backdrops that it can muster even if they aren't the best looking scenes overall on the NES the whole style still remains iconic to this day as you have a desert with "that rock!" along with "those cacti!" plus little else except you and the wonderfully characterised outlaws each of which all have their own brilliant style complete with outfits ranging from poncho's to suits with all the various hats to match, all of the animations such as the trousers falling down or a hat flying off then coming to rest on the ground all add that vital character which the game is famed for. Of course the audio is sparse with no background music to speak of, just a couple of jingles, a tension-building looped sound as the shootout plays out plus the sound of the gun but then that's all you really need.

Again this isn't really a title which will compel you to keep playing for many hours but it is an excellent high-score challenge which should at least be attempted if you have ever enjoyed light gun games in the past and perhaps want to feel that rush of nostalgia all over again. Or perhaps you have never experienced the simple pleasure of the light gun game, if this is the case then I simply cannot advise you enough to stop what you are doing, buy this and get blasting! Because no matter who you are, regardless of age it is always fun to play out in the Wild West and gun down outlaws, so give this one a go as you might just be surprised.

Fill 'em with lead and watch the drink pour outta 'em!

This relatively recent revival of the light-gun genre is certainly something which Nintendo should be praised for as not many other companies are putting the same amount of effort into re-releasing or even making games like this any more which I think is a sad thing because although often in many cases this type of title is peripheral dependant there is still no reason why at least a handful of these games shouldn't be allowed to exist once more. It seems that the Wii U has this advantage in its support of the Wii remote so it's good to see Light Gun emulation being put into practice, I for one would love to see some new light gun games released for the machine but failing that I do at the very least hope that we get the last game on the NES which exclusively supported the Zapper in the form of Gumshoe as it's easily the most unique example being that it's part shooting and part platforming yet all controlled with the squeeze of a trigger; so at the very least I hope this does happen before Nintendo hopefully then start on Super Scope games... well we can dream for now content with playing in the Wild West for now.

Verdict : Wild Gunman is still a classic Western-themed shooter with a lot of style.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!