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The StarSoldier
GAME OF THE MONTH COLLECTION! GANGSTER TOWN |
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| Artist
touch: This sucks! The Tommy gun looks cool but the FBI agent looks like
a complete knob. Cover art rating: 0/10 |
Month
it won:
November 2006 (Sega, 1987) |
Special note: C'mon
that art is total crap!
|
| Introduction and Story: |
| Like
I said in my first review in the Sega Master System Dud Series
(Dynamite Dux)
I'm kind of Canadian here and we don't get as many guns here compared
to our lucky neighbors in the United States. Sure, there are less murders
and crime here I guess but there is no denying guns are still cool. What
better way to work on your marksmanship then getting a fun gun based video
game so you can kill some virtual targets, eh? Don't
be fooled by that crappy artwork on the cover here, Gangster Town here
is perhaps one of the best 8-bit gun games ever made! Story wise in a interesting twist to the standard gun game here you travel back in time to the great depression while you help some FBI agents in 1920's rid an once peaceful neighborhood city of a bunch of vile gangsters. These wily, and well armed gangsters are all over the city though and they don't want to be taken in alive. |
| Controls and Game Play: |
| OK,
I know these gun video games sound cool at first but in the end usually
you end up doing the same old thing over and over until you go completely
mad. Take the other 8-bit gun games like Hogan's Alley and Wild
Gunman for example where the stages never change unless you actually
select a different mode. Gangster Town is a much different story though
because one minute you're chasing down these gangsters in runaway cars
while a biplane shoots down bombs in the backgrounds and the next if you're
good enough you get to fight a nearly endless amount of enemies in seedy
bars and night clubs. These guys attack from just about everywhere like
and they are not afraid to take hostages either. The odds are definitely against you here but thankfully Gangster Town can even be played by two players at the same time if you have two Light Phasers handy. Go ahead and name any other 8-bit gun game where two of you can play simultaneously, eh? Players can even upgrade their life bar with more hearts by completing fun special challenges like shooting paper dummies and finding a random key hidden in brick walls. You'll lose one of these hard earned hearts if you hit the innocent blonde girl in some of the missions even though it's kind of funny when you do shoot her (if this dumb chick is stupid enough to be walking around in a gun fight then that's her own damn fault). |
| Graphics and Sounds: | |
 Hmmm Beer! |
Although the game play has more meat on the bones then Rosie O'Donald, the graphics and sounds haven't aged too well. It's weird how some of these cartoonish gangsters just almost magically pop up and down of the strangest places and the whole comical look here does take the intense crime fighting edge off as well. It isn't all bad because I like how the stages are constantly changing and the huge characters are easy to spot on the screen which is important from a gun game. The music has this low key jazzy style and it fits the game well enough and the sound weren't horrible here but like the graphics the sound could have benefited from some more polish. |
| The Bottomline: | |
| Since I never liked the idea of killing harmless animals in other gun games like Safari Hunt, Duck Hunt, or Fluffy Must Die (what did they ever do to you), shooting these no good rich, racketeering, snobby gangsters here in this game is definitely much more satisfying to me at least. All right, the animation looks a bit rough around the edges and the game can get way too hard later on since the enemies just keep on coming (although my friend Calvin and I were able to finish it together once) but Gangster Town here is just too fun to play to worry about any minor problems here. For example; the game is still jam packed some decent looking locations like bars, night clubs, and harbors to interact with, there is a bunch of cool sound effects that help remind you this is a gun fight, and the very challenging but fair game play here actually awards skillful players believe it or not. So go ahead and unplug those old controllers and hook up some of those Sega Light Phasers instead because if you are looking for one of the best 8-bit gun games ever made then check out the underrated Gangster Town. |
 Say there big boy, is that a Light Phaser in your pocket or you just happy to see me? |