Wild Guns

Wild Guns[a] is a 1994 space Western shooting gallery video game developed by Natsume for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Set in the Wild West with steampunk and sci-fi influences, the story follows Annie and her bounty hunter Clint, seeking revenge for the death of her family.

The team leads had previously worked together on The Ninja Warriors (1994) for the Super NES, and so chose to develop for that system.

Wild Guns was heavily influenced in its gameplay and artistic design by arcade games such as Blood Bros. and Dynamite Duke.

An enhanced remaster titled Wild Guns Reloaded was released in 2016 for PlayStation 4, 2017 for Windows, and 2018 for Nintendo Switch.

Reloaded features two new characters which are Doris and Bullet the dog with his sentry drone, additional stages and modes, and updated visuals and audio.

[1][2]: 2  The gameplay combines elements from third-person shooters and light gun games in a similar fashion to Blood Bros. and Cabal.

Although Clint says he doesn't need Annie's assistance, she insists, claiming she has a personal vendetta against the Kid family and is a skilled shooter.

[3] Defeating enemies will sometimes reveal item boxes, which can hold precious metals such as gold and silver for extra points, and bombs.

[2]: 12, 15 Development of Wild Guns began when a small team of Natsume staff was asked to create a game quickly and cheaply while waiting for their next major assignment.

The team consisted of three core members: Shunichi Taniguchi for game design and graphics, Toshiyasu Miyabe for programming, and Hiroyuki Iwatsuki for sound.

[5] When composing the music for Wild Guns, Hiroyuki Iwatsuki drew upon the influence of a Western soundtrack "Best Of" CD that Natsume had provided him.

[21] GamePro praised the game for its intense action, fun cooperative multiplayer mode, colorful graphics, and ability to shoot almost any on-screen object.

[28] Nintendo Power found the game to have good graphics and control, and complimented the presence of both male and female playable characters.

[20] In a retrospective Virtual Console review, IGN's Lucas M. Thomas commended the gameplay depth and the detailed visual presentation.

[1] In another retrospective review, Todd Ciolek of GameSetWatch cited Wild Guns as one of the best games in a genre that has become a lost art.

Annie firing at the boss in the first stage
Clint and Annie were designed to be emblematic of the American frontier period.