Westbang Review

[skamando]

Westbang - Rake in the Grass

Links:

iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=316452883&mt=8

Appshopper - http://appshopper.com/games/westbang

Price: $.99

Lite: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318957688&mt=8

Played On: iPhone 3G

Rating: 9.5/10

I have seen many stationary shooters in my time on the app store, and a couple of them wild west themed, and, I have to say, none of them compare to Westbang in it’s level of polish, addiction and fun.

Westbang is a story driven stationary shooter, which, instead of relying on your aim, it relies on your reaction and timing. The game consists of three doors opening in front of you with either bandits, townsfolk, or surprises on the other side. You have to shoot the bandits, refrain from shooting the townfolk, and, depending on the surprise, shoot it. The tricky part is, you can only shoot the bandits when they have they’re gun drawn, and, depending on the bandit, they might draw them right away or after a second or two, or ten seconds in. If you let them sit for mor then a second or two after they’ve drawn, they shoot you and take one of your lives. You also lose a life if you shoot them before they’ve drawn, or if you shoot a townsperson or a bomb, being one of the surprises. All of this can get really difficult to manage at times, where you are watching one of the longer waiters, and then an immediate drawer pops out of a door and shoots you while you were distracted. I relish this challenge and it keeps bringing me back for more.

The writing in this game is pretty good, but ridiculously cliche. You play a sheriff in a western town taken over by bandits and it’s up to you to stop them. There is a good amount of voice acting that is better than alot of voice acting in games, and it helps to drive the story along. After every couple of levels, you face off against an enemy gunslinger and his cronies and its a simple quickdraw and kill, which is tense and extremely satisfying when you get your man. Overall, this is a fun addition to the standard gameplay and a solid boss system.

The games interface is smooth, attractive, and responsive. It works perfectly within the game and causes no problems. I found this nice, but not distracting form the real game.

As stated previously, the voice acting is satisfactory, as is the rest of the sound in this game. The music is the standard exciting western and the sound effects are the standard gunshots and screams, which work fine. Overall, I found the sound to be nice, nothing too special, but it gets the job done perfectly well.

However, I love the look of this game. While it is the old west, it looks great. Extremely well animated, it makes the old west look vibrant. The characters are nicely drawn and resemble an old style bandit in full. The variation in bandit is great too, as each different bandit tells you how and when to shoot him. There’s the short stocky fella who waits a second before he draws, as well as the masked bandit who pulls on you immediately as the door swings open. Overall, I think the graphics are attractive and vibrant and are one of the nicest parts of the game.

When it comes to replay value, this game has it in spades. There are online scoreboards, multiple modes of play and diffculty, which are varied enough to make you come back over and over again. The easy (The Good) mode is nice to make your way through the game, where the normal difficulty (The Bad) is fun and challenging. It adds a few gameplay elements as well, such as manual reload, as apposed to “The Good’s” automatic. The hard difficulty (The Ugly) is extremely tough, and allows for some stiff online competition. There is a deep scoring system, based on shot accuracy, reactions speed, and combos. As well as post round bonuses based on your speed and shot perfection. If your a player who is obssessive about beatig yours ad other scores, this is a game I’m sure you will keep coming back to.

In terms of cons, this game has none. I honestly can’t find much fault with this game. The only thing I can hit on is the game’s lack of depth, which I don’t really mind. It’s a quck to play game which draws you in with it’s replay value. There really is no need for any depth. This game is pretty well perfect. The only thing I would like is a nicer icon. The current one is a little ugly, and in future updates, something prettier would be great.

I give this game a 9.5 out of 10.

It’s fun, addicting, and pretty, with a clean interface, great sound, and the perfect amount of replay value. I can’t find much to criticize in this game, except the icon, which is honestly not a big problem.

Somethings to add:

-Possibly a bluetooth cooperative mode, where your defending a five door bank, but elsewise, nothing