Retro|Spective 202: Arcade Lightgun Shooters

[QualityChimp]

I do quite like Deadstorm. It plays like a reskinned HotD, but they really double-down with the theme and it's good fun.

[Atticus]

I loved Deadstorm Pirates on PS3 ... cracking lightgun game (though I do prefer a city/cop/contemporary setting).

[wakka]

I have mixed feelings about this one and Let's Go Jungle.

They are pretty fun to play, but I feel the on-screen crosshairs and automatic guns make for a messier, less pure experience. There's something immensely satisfying about slicing your way through TC and HOTD levels once you're practised, precisely gunning down the popcorn enemies.

By contrast these ones always felt a bit more spray and pray.

That said, I've definitely had fun with them, and I do like their use of the idea of multiple glowing weakpoints that you have to hit quickly during setpieces (e.g. when something's flying at you). Kind of a lift of what SEGA did with the objectives in GHOST Squad (but we'll be coming to that later in the thread).

[QualityChimp]

I have mixed feelings about this one and Let's Go Jungle.

They are pretty fun to play, but I feel the on-screen crosshairs and automatic guns make for a messier, less pure experience.

I know what you mean, it makes it feel like you're spraying water, rather than shooting a gun.

[Neon Ignition]

Namco Funstation at Trafford has a kids lightgun game that operates in that exact way, shooting enemies on the screen but physically spraying water at the same time.

Less risky than this one always was:

[QualityChimp]

That's taking the piss.

[Hirst]

I had no idea the first Lethal Enforcers was FMV based.

It's just digitised sprites, like NARC or Pit Fighter. Only the pre-level things are FMV (and only "technically" as they're about two seconds long).

Personally I love the first Lethal Enforcers, wonky scaled digital graphics too. The whole "look" is like some forgotten Cannon Films cop drama where everyone has suspiciously old cars because you just know they will get blown up. The bad guys shout cliches like "you missed me pig!" and "eat lead, copper". The music is slightly bizarre, over the top and distinctive for lack of a better word.

It's probably coincidental, but it feels like a love letter to crappy action films where some B-lister like Robert Ginty turns up and has a shootout with 50 people who all react to being shot by throwing their arms up and dropping to the ground.

[wakka]

It's just digitised sprites, like NARC or Pit Fighter. Only the pre-level things are FMV (and only "technically" as they're about two seconds long).

Yeah, I realised that when I actually watched the vid - posted too quickly after scanning the thumbnail. The second one, I now realise, is too. I hadn't really thought about it till now but I've only ever actually played Lethal Enforcers 3, which is done with standard polygons as it's much later, and realised I knew practically nothing about the earlier games.

The whole "look" is like some forgotten Cannon Films cop drama where everyone has suspiciously old cars because you just know they will get blown up.

Ha ha that is so true

[Neon Ignition]

Game 13 - The House of the Dead
Other than giving Uwe Boll a reason to desecrate cinema, Sega's arcade light gun entry is one of the main presences of the arcade light gun scene. Following its cheesey storyline, players can branch through the story as they gun down onslaughts of the undead and other creatures.










Dead on its feet or another arcade legend?

[fuse]

Completely agree with the feeling of detachment you get from using a giant, mounted cannon type gun and following the crosshair on screen rather than something you're holding up to your face and able to aim by looking down the sights. Not that I haven't had fun with Deadstorm Pirates, Let's go Jungle and so on... just... it's not quite the same. Pretty sure it was Deadstorm Pirates where my partner excitedly pivoted the gun at some speed into my kneecap, so I'm probably a little bitter still about that too.

[QualityChimp]

We've chatted about this before, but I've always felt HotD is a little cheap and when it wants you to die, it'll have an enemy you can't react to unless you know it's coming, or there's a boss that takes a gazillion bullets, and the same amount of credits, to die.

I really love The Typing of the Dead though. It genuinely improved my typing skills!

[Atticus]

I never loved the HotD games ... I always prefer tactically picking off enemies over spraying frantically.

[wakka]

I'm not that familiar with HOTD1 but I am very familiar with HOTD2. And I like it, but by god it is cheap. Even the popcorn enemies take a good few hits to go down, and then the later bosses are just insane bullet sponges.

By the time you get to the boss rush that closes out HOTD2, your hands are absolutely knackered.

Overall though, the HOTD games are still a grade above most lightgun efforts. But they could've been better.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Overkill is, by far, the best HOTD game in the entire franchise. It's not even close.

Don't @ Me.

[QualityChimp]

Is Quick & Crash making it to the thread?

That's one I'd love to play again.