First Impressions of Wild Guns Reloaded at E3 2017

The dream of outfitting my dog with a semi-sentient gunnar-bot has finally been realized!

 

Continuing the theme of “revival”, NatsumeAtari has released a sequel to its SNES “steampunk shooting-gallery” title Wild Guns. Staying true to its addictive in-home-arcade roots, the cooperative Wild Guns Reloaded was… wildly fun! This new iteration features two brand new characters, new (and classic) maps, and online ranking to boot.

 

 

The game’s original storyline continues the adventures of Clint and Annie roaming a steampunk wild west, exacting revenge for their lost family members. Doris and Bullet the Dog join to assist in the destruction with their own unique powers and abilities. We had the chance to play through three stages in multiplayer mode. Each stage opened with our characters lined up neatly at the bottom of the screen, immediately descending into chaos each character swept left to right. There’s a certain satisfaction for a completionist like myself to have one goal, and one goal only – eliminate the enemy.

 

 

Within moments of my demo starting, a small crowd had formed in the already-tight Natsume booth. The game invites commentary ranging from nostalgic “pew pew”’s to rambo-esque shouts as you completely eviscerate the interior of a saloon stage. The four player gameplay only amplified these shouts with cleared stages erupting into deserved high-fives and fist-bumps. Our celebration was cut short with our arrival to the boss stage. Wild Guns Reloaded holds dearly to the “last-man-standing” model, with dead players relegated to helpless spectating. Our boss was a massive robotic structure outfitted with targeted weaponry, and a flurry of minion robots, and human allies.

 

 

Strategy in the game is limited, but the controls beg constant attention to the independent location of both your character and your weapon’s target. As you fire, the position of your target is stationary, but the character is strafing freely – altering the relative position of your target to your character. As many of the enemies reside “deeper” in the stages dimensions – some have access to your character’s plane. As you’re firing on an enemy popping up from a window, another may be approaching to maul your character, costing a valuable “life”.

 

Thankfully, our demo time granted multiple visits to the boss stage, allowing for our ragtag group to build a strategy. With our eyes attuned to decipher the game’s pandemonium, and calling on a little bit of luck – we triumphantly… died instantaneously

 

Make sure to take a look at our shots of the game for a peek into Wild Guns Reloaded’s fast-paced insanity – available now on PC.