Wild Gunman is a Light Gun game best remembered for appearing in the movie Back to the Future 2. The movie shows four gunmen on screen at once. The real Wild Gunman doesn't quite live up. Comparison: Left is movie version, right is real thing The game is like a worse version of Hogan's Alley . It's a reflex game more than a target-practice game like Duck Hunt . In mode A, the game doesn't even check the gun's position, only measuring how long it takes you to pull the trigger after the gunman says "Draw!" Shoot prematurely or too slowly, and you lose. Mode B has two gunmen, and you do have to aim somewhat, as the two figures are on opposite sides of the screen. This mode is comparable to mode A of Hogan's Alley, except the enemies' positions are static. Sometimes one of the gunmen doesn't draws. You're penalized if you shoot him, like a bystander in Hogan's Alley. Mode C is exactly like the building screen from mode B of Hogan's Alle...

I once played Hogan's Alley in a Chuck E. Cheese's (back when it was primarily an arcade). Years later, I sought to buy an NES copy, but never found one. Well, I have finally fulfilled that childhood wish (albeit on Wii U Virtual Console, using the Wii Remote). But after two decades, it was a bit of a letdown. Hogan's Alley launched alongside fellow "shooting gallery" games  Duck Hunt  and Wild Gunman . I'm sure I wasn't the only one who found the idea of shooting bad guys on my TV appealing. As in all these early arcade-style games, you can choose between multiple modes. In Game A, you have a certain amount of time (sometimes less than a second!) to shoot the bad guys from a line-up of three. There is always at least one good guy (Lady, Professor, and Police) that, if you shoot, counts as a miss. Ten misses and you're done. Pretty simple, and not especially engaging. In Game B, you are in the eponymous Hogan's Alley ( police shooting range ), whic...

Duck Hunt may be the most famous NES game that doesn't have Mario in it. The ability to play games in which you shoot a gun at targets on your TV screen must have seemed exciting and innovative in 1985. And, frankly, it still holds up in 2021. Target practice is a basic human activity, and the NES does not so much simulate it as offer a medium on which really to do it.  Wii U remote Unfortunately, the Light Gun ("Zapper") doesn't work on modern TVs because its light sensor depends on the timing of a cathode-ray tube drawing the picture line by line . Not wishing to see this beloved classic forgotten, Nintendo in 2015 re-released Duck Hunt on the Wii U, taking advantage of the Wii Remote's optical sensor. It doesn't sense the light from your TV, but rather infrared light emitted by a sensor bar you place below or above your TV. This approximates the original gameplay, but it doesn't feel as satisfying as pointing a gun directly at your TV. Duck Hunt is extr...