Showdown (Badgerpunch Games) 1.00 USD (Digital) / 10.00 GBP (Tape)
Game title: Showdown
Game description: BadgerPunch Games debut onto the Commodore 64 gaming community with Showdown - a one or two player arcade shooter that provides a modern day interpretation on the classic Gun Fight arcade game from the 70s. The objective to the game is simple. You play a cowboy out to win a fierce gun duel with the first one to shoot down the opponent 5 times being deemed as the winner of the duel. The playfield is filled with cacti for you to use for cover, while a stagecoach will roll up through the centre of the screen providing additional protection. Explosive crates also appear around the play area with a cowboy's life being lost if a crate is shot when they are in close proximity. Your gun carries only 6 bullets which you can reload by either picking up bullet packs from the ground, or alternatively you can manually replacing bullets with a click of the joystick button. Shots are simply fired off with a tap of the joystick button with angled shots possible by pushing the joystick in the desired direction while letting off a shot. The playfield is filled with cacti for you to use for cover, while a stagecoach will roll up through the centre of the screen providing additional protection. Explosive crates also appear around the play area with a cowboy's life being lost if a crate is shot when they are in close proximity. After each duel, Showdown displays a score board showing the amount of wins attributed to each cowboy, allowing for undisputed bragging rights when the game is played between two human players.
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Graphics - 80%
80%
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Sound - 75%
75%
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Fun - 70%
70%
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Depth - 30%
30%
Summary
With its cutely drawn mini cowboy figures (including 5 o’clock shadows) and considered use of colours on the play area, Showdown is somewhat visually attractive. Add to this a very good bouncing western tune in the background and tight player controls and what is on offer here is well produced.
However, as a one player experience Showdown has limited longevity as there is no variation in difficulty settings, or any notion of a level progression structure. Adding in the ability to duel with different enemies and pick up different types of weapons under some sort of story narrative would really exploit what the game could offer to its full. As a game played with friends then there is little to fault the game (and you could probably add 15 points to the overall score) as a night filled with Showdown duelling action amongst two players is guaranteed to be a lot of fun.
Overall
64%User Review
( votes)Pros
- Lots of fun with two players
- Cute, attractive graphics
Cons
- Limited single player experience
