Konami's oversized, colorful multiplayer arcade games have eaten quite a few of my quarters. I'd dump $15 at a time into X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Simpsons. Sunset Riders was a much rarer find, thanks to the non-licensed wild west theme. Don't look so surprised.
I actually almost bought an original Sunset Riders machine last winter, but I was afraid I couldn't get the wide four-player unit into my modest house. Nevertheless, this is precisely the kind of arcade game I like: noisy, colorful, multiplayer, and silly.
You are one of four cowboy heroes, hilariously named Steve, Billy, Bob and Cormano. Well, Cormano isn't so hilarious; that actually sounds like a decent cowboy name. I'm sure that cowboys named Bob existed, but it's not exactly heroic sounding. According to klov, there's another version of the game where everybody has more appropriate names, but I've never played it.
Anyway, Steve and company are basically out to eliminate anything that moves, and especially anything that might be an end-level boss. Although most of the game takes place in walking, side-scrolling levels, there are several times when you are on horseback or stuck in a single room in a boss attack. Tens of enemy banditos will come after you at a time, creating a sea of running figures and laser bullets (more on the lasers in a bit.) The baddies are fast too, much livelier than the enemies of TMNT or X-Men. The tradeoff is that rarely anybody takes more than one shot to kill.
These games were never very fair. Through the sheer bulk of attackers, you're bound to get aced quickly and constantly. But you always had the advantage, because there's infinite continues as long as you have infinite quarters. I always liked that about these arcade games; it made me feel like I could beat the game if only I brought enough money with me.
The scenery of Sunset Riders is typical of Konami's 2D games of the era. Varied and full of detail. Right before you run headlong into a cattle stampede, a flock of frightened chickens will rush the screen. Different types of deaths yield hokey animations, like being flattened by a falling barrel or singed black from an explosion. Walk into an open doorway and find a hidden powerup in the form of a bottle of whiskey or an appreciative saloon gal.
Your attack comes in the form of expected western weaponry: six shooters and shotguns. Of course, they fire rather slow bolts of colored laser energy. The combat is where Sunset Riders differs from most other side-scrolling fighters... you have no punch or kick, just an eight-direction shot. In fact, walking straight overtop a baddie will have no negative effect at all: no automatic hit or damage. The only danger from most enemies is their own pistol shots, thrown dynamite, and the like. Effectively, you have 360 degrees (in eight positions) of firing range, so considering your angle is an integral part of your skill.
Naturally, you start with a cheap weapon, but picking up the sheriff star powerups will increase your shot strength. For some characters, it will even allow for two six shooters pointed in different directions. Your death resets your weapon back to cheap.
The bosses are long. That's a necessary result of a game designed to run off a steady flow of quarters. Many of them begin the round backed up by a posse of low rent enemies, but once you clear out all of them, they won't infinitely respawn. The bosses themselves move in expected patterns, but fire randomly, again creating the continuous stream of bullets for you to duck and dodge as you attack. Displaying the universal sign of a boss about to die, the evil muchachos all pulse red as they take damage.
Sunset Riders features lots of rudimentary sound samples: horses neighing, chickens cackling, "You got me!", "Are you all right, ma'am?" among others. The voice work especially adds to the corny feel. The music is nothing too special, but it does adequately present a western style filtered through 1990s level video game music synthesizers, which is a rare enough accomplishment.
Several years ago, I realized that Gauntlet just doesn't hold up today. Games like Sunset Riders do, because they rely on fast action and silly graphics. Konami needs to pull some of these games out of the vault and issue a Game Boy Advance compilation cart. The X-Men and Simpsons are still huge, and the Turtles are gamely trying another comeback... just have to leap through a ton of licensing hoops. Perhaps even throw in some of their lesser known multiplayer melee games, like Bucky O'Hare... and Sunset Riders. These games would make great GBA link titles.
