Sunset Riders
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| Sunset Riders | |
|---|---|
| Sunset Riders Title Screen | |
| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES |
| Release | September 4, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Run and gun |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2-4 player Co-op |
Sunset Riders (サンセットライダーズ) is a run and gun arcade game created by Konami in 1991. It is set in the wild west. The game was later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1992, and to the SNES video game console in 1993.
Story
The game, which is set in a fanciful version of the American Old West, revolves around four bounty hunters who are out to claim rewards given for eliminating the most wanted outlaws in the West. There is no true "storyline" aside from collecting progressively larger rewards. At the beginning of each level the player is shown a wanted poster, showing the criminal, the reward for stopping them, and the cliché line "Wanted dead or alive".
Gameplay
Sunset Riders is similar to other run and guns, such as Konami's Contra, but with less emphasis on jumping and a greater focus on shooting. The game includes a total of four playable characters to choose from: Steve, Billy, Bob, and Cormano. The characters are slightly differentiated: Steve and Billy use revolvers while Bob and Cormano are armed with shotguns. The shotguns shoot somewhat slower than their revolver counterparts, but have a wider spread, making them ideal for taking out enemies without too much precise aiming. On the full-size arcade cabinet up to four players can play simultaneously, each as a different character.
The player can fire in 8 directions, slide to avoid bullets, and perform surprisingly acrobatic jumps onto and from rooftops, offering additional vantage points from which to fight. Many enemies can do the same. Unlike Contra (but similar to Metal Slug), colliding with enemies does not kill the player; only bullets, pits and other obstacles are fatal. Throughout the levels there are doors that can be opened, as in the games Rolling Thunder and Shinobi. Enemies may come out of some doors, while others yield power-ups. When the player emerges from one of doors containing a power-up a short animation plays, showing the protagonist being kissed on the cheek by a female bar fly or taking a swig from a bottle of liquor. Many enemies utilize stick-dynamite as a weapon; if quick enough, the dynamite can be picked up and thrown by the players. Once initially thrown the dynamite will start to blink at an accelerated pace, which represents the remaining length of the fuse. When it explodes it will eliminate both players and enemies, even if the enemies initially threw the dynamite. This particular rendition of the wild west also features plenty of opportunely placed boulders, barrels, and explosives that happen to reside above the heads of enemies and can be used to the player's advantage. At the end of each level the cash bounty is distributed amongst the players in proportion to the amount of damage they dealt to the boss.
Power-ups/Bonuses
There are three types of hidden items in Sunset Riders. All of the gun power-ups are lost when the player gets killed.
- Rapid fire: Represented by a gold sheriff's badge, this item allows players to hold the button to fire (instead of hitting it repeatedly) and accelerates the bullets slightly.
- Dual fire: Represented by a silver sheriff badge emblazoned with two revolvers, this icon gives the player a second weapon. Steve and Billy fire their dual revolvers at different angles, while Bob and Cormano aim their paired shotguns in the same direction for a wider shot spread.
- Monetary award: A pile of gold coins (worth $2000) or a roast turkey (worth $500). In addition, once a character's guns are fully powered up, any rapid/dual fire items he picks up are worth $1000 each.
Stages and bosses
There are a total of eight levels in the game. Each boss says a short phrase at the beginning and end of each battle. A few of the phrases contain minor translation errors. Most of the game consists of side-scrolling on foot, however Stage 2 and Stage 7 are done partially on horseback. In addition, there are two bonus rounds, one after level 2 and the other after level 5.
- Stage 1 –
This stage is primarily on the outskirts of a small town, crossing over a bridge and then onto a cattle ranch.
- Simon Greedwell, a wealthy rancher and crime boss who wields a rifle.
- Battle phrase: "It's time to pay!"
- Upon death: "ARRRRGH!!" (crashing on the ground near players) "Bury me with my money!"
- Stage 2 –
This stage is on horseback along a railroad with a moving train, ending at a bandit-infested train station.
- Hawkeye "Hank" Hatfield, a sharpshooter with high agility who dives around behind boxes and emerges briefly to fire.
- Battle phrase: "Draw, pilgrim!"
- Upon death (hunches over; hat falls off): "Ugh...ya got me." (falls on his face)
- Stage 3 –
This stage is in a larger town with a series of stores and houses.
- Dark Horse, a man armed with a rifle who rides a large, black, armor-plated horse.
- Battle phrase: "You in heap big trouble!"
- Upon death (slumps down on horse): "Me in heap big trouble!" (his horse carries him off)
- Stage 4 –
This stage is completely within a saloon, with enemies perched on the chandelier.
- The Smith Brothers, two brothers in a bar who hurl either explosives or firebombs at the player.
- Battle phrase: "We're gonna blow you away!" "Yeah! Yeah!"
- Upon death: "Holy smoke!" "That was a bang!" (the first brother killed slumps over the railing of his platform and stays onscreen, the second brother falls down and explodes)
- Stage 5 –
This stage is on top of a moving train that has been taken over by enemies.
- El Greco, a Mexican man who uses a bullet-proof shield and a whip and wears a bright red sombrero.
- Battle phrase: "Die, Gringo!"
- Upon death: "Adios, amigo!" (Tosses sombrero away, falls under the train and gets run over. Note: If Cormano is in the game, he will catch the sombrero and wear it throughout the remaining stages.)
- Stage 6 –
This stage is on a mountain range within Indian territory.
- Chief Scalpem (changed to Wigwam for the Super Nintendo, most likely due to fear of racial insensitivity) is a Native American shaman who flings throwing knives at the player(s) and can block bullets.
- Battle phrase: "Me ready for Pow-Wow!"
- Upon death: "Me Pow-Wowed OUT!" (A young woman then comes on the screen and pleads to the players not to shoot her brother; in fact, she says he was "only following orders". The heroes agree to spare him.)
- Stage 7 –
This stage is on horseback through a forest, ending at a fort guarding Richard Rose's estate.
- Paco Loco, a rather obese man who sits atop the fort gate and fires a machine gun.
- Battle phrase: "Ay, chihuahua!" (pounds his chest)
- Upon death: "Hasta la BYE BYE!" (Falls over the gate and onto the ground. He then fires above the heroes' heads and falls backward.)
- Stage 8 –
This stage is inside Richard Rose's compound and ends at the front door of his mansion.
- Sir Richard Rose, a British man who fires at the player from a balcony behind a statue of two lions. He initially prefers to hide behind the safety of the statues while his private army does most of the dirty work, but the battle soon switches gears and he dashes around the screen with agility that rivals the player characters. He also has to be defeated twice (since he wears bullet proof armor in the first half of the battle, and the Genesis version has the final boss battle song transposed up one note to signify the second half). The statues can be shot away to give a better field of fire.
- Battle phrase: "Cheerio, ol' chap!"
- Upon death (Arcade version has a picture of a rose falling apart instead of the final boss dying; SNES version depicts him falling on his knees): "I say...bit o' bad luck..." (collapses)
- Bonus Stages –
- The player has a limited time to shoot up to 50 enemies that pop up in various locations on the screen. This stage is done in a first-person fashion where the joystick is used to aim the targeting cursor. The enemies do not fire back, so the player cannot lose anything from playing these stages. They appear after levels 2 and 5.
Ports
While the SNES version is fairly faithful, the Mega Drive/Genesis version reduces the number of characters to two, and similarly the number of levels is cut in half, in addition to the common occurrence of lower sound and graphic quality. Also, the stage designs are completely different.
One of the biggest changes to the Super NES version was the replacement of the Native American enemies in the sixth stage, with the regular cowboy enemies in their place instead. This changes some of the gameplay on that stage, since the regular Native enemies fired flaming arrows and dropped rocks on you, attempting to block your progress. Also, Chief Scalpem (or Wigwam, as he is called in the Super NES version) says, "Get ready for a Pow-Wow", and "I'm Pow-Wowed out!", with correct grammar. Not surprisingly, this only affects the caption. As the voice clips couldn't be redone, they were simply shortened to, "Ready for Pow-Wow", and "Pow-Wowed out!". Other changes to the U.S. Super NES version include removal of female enemies (possibly to avoid backlash of violence against women), and giving all the female barflies in the game longer dresses instead of their normal corsets and underwear. Also none of the characters drink anything or get kissed by female barflies when they come out of doors, instead simply posing when they get a powerup from a door.
Trivia
- When you fight Hawkeye Hank Hatfield in stage 2, one of the posters on the wall reads "TMNT" and has a green figure on it, representing another popular Konami game at the time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- In the arcade version, if the player character does not move after he has cleared the enemies onscreen, a large red arrow will flash "Hurry Up" and point in the right direction. If the player still does not move, a hawk will fly in from offscreen and kill the player, thus providing incentive to continue and not take up too much time.
- The Genesis version shows a small biography of each of its playable characters during attract mode, shown to the right.