Youtuber SNES Drunk already did an outstanding video review on this game years ago, so I'll offer my best in longform.
Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I'm not a big fan of Contra III: The Alien Wars on Super Nintendo. The original Contra and Super C on the Nintendo Entertainment System were great run-'n-gun games, but I found Contra III too challenging and the overhead stages very unappealing. Thankfully, Konami's other run-'n-gun Sunset Riders I happen to really enjoy.
Originally a coin-op arcade, Sunset Riders was ported to both Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Most gamers agree that the Super Nintendo version is superior because of better graphics, better music/sound (the voices are absent in the Genesis version), fewer playable characters in the Sega Genesis version, and in general the levels in the Genesis version are much shorter and radically different. The Sega Genesis version simply put is just far too little of the video game it is supposed to be .
Just as Capcom's Knights of the Round and King of Dragons video games did a great job of freshly blending English medieval themes with the beat 'em up genre, so too did Konami's Sunset Riders do a great job of freshly blending the American wild west theme with the run-'n-gun genre. It's a perfect union, has tremendous appeal. The colors, sounds, music, and characters all look and sound great. The theming of the game is extremely well done.
As for the gameplay, it's a run-'n-gun, and a very difficult one at that. I love this game and have yet to get good at it over the years, find myself wishing I was better. There are one-hit deaths, and the enemy's bullets/projectiles are slow moving and will flash, but even a seasoned gamer will find themselves struggling to dodge all the shots without getting fatally cornered. The boss battles are incredibly difficult, and persistent gamers will find the key strategy to master is to use the slide technique to narrowly dodge spread shots or to use the mechanic that allows the player to execute a swinging jump to or from a 2nd story platform above/below to avoid a fatally cornering spread shot.
The theming of the game is what really shines. There's classic wild west towns, a boss battle inside a saloon, a couple of levels on horseback including one where you chase down a steam-powered locomotive train, and even a canyon level where you fight a Native American (although this would be taboo nowadays, the SNES version made significant concessions regarding the Native American boss). A minor complaint is that the canyon stage is missing the Native American enemies (except the boss, which is still a Native American) and also missing the sky gondola section of the level.
Other than those minor complaints, Konami's Sunset Riders on Super Nintendo is a great game, a pretty clear front-runner for the best run-'n-gun during the 16-bit age. While it's easily the best run-'n-gun on Super Nintendo, there are a couple of competitors on the Sega Genesis, such as Konami's Contra: Hard Corps (regarded as much better and certainly very different from Super Nintendo's Contra III: The Alien Wars), as well as the highly regarded GunStar Heroes by Treasure Games. Personally, I find Sunset Riders to be the best of the bunch.
Finally, as I find myself doing nowadays, there is a matter of price. Sunset Riders on Super Nintendo has been an expensive collection piece for quite some time. I can recall the game going for about $35 in the late 90's and very early 2000's, but as early as the mid 2000's the game jumped over $50. The game steadily increased in value for several years and only at about 2015 or so has Sunset Riders on SNES hit a plateau of about $80-$100. In a situation like this, I examine it's twin port on the Sega Genesis which will run about $40 or so. However, the Genesis version is dramatically inferior to the point where it's either the Super Nintendo version or bust.
Certainly the best 16-bit run-'n-gun, but it comes at a steep price. $60 is a reasonable price, but will require negotiation.
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Rael
Was a top favourite game when my hubby was a kid
Reviewed in Canada on March 13, 2018