Back in the arcades Konami once a company that could to do no wrong found a success with numerous arcade games like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, The Simpsons Arcade game and of course their own Contra franchise in which the original Contra games (or Gryzor or Probotector if you live in the PAL regions like me) were really incredible and fun to play despite the high level challenge. Konami follows the success of the Contra games with Sunset Riders which takes the Contra style run & gun side scrolling shooter gameplay into the wild west with fantastic results.
Instead of blowing up aliens Sunset Riders has players playing as 4 bounty hunters who are out to clean up the wild west of outlaws lead by Sir Richard Rose that are causing all kinds of trouble. Every level you start shows you a wanted poster of what boss that you are going up against and the dollars (which is the game's form of points) you get for defeating them. Your main characters are Billy and Steve who use a single shot six shooting revolvers and you also have Bob and Cormano who use rifles and shotguns that spread much like the Contra series' Spread gun. In the two player versions you get to pick one the available four characters as you see fit but playing the four player version has the four characters assigned to the four players like Billy is assigned to Player 1, Steve for Player 2, Bob for Player 3 and lastly Cormano for Player 4.
The gameplay of Sunset Riders is much like the Contra games where you and your other pals move to the right in Sidescrolling Run & Gun fashion shooting at enemies that get in your way. You also have power ups like one which gives you fast firing where you can hold down the fire button to shoot and also one where it allows you to dual wielding. These are earned from opening doors, defeated enemies or found on the ground plus also items that give you more points. Enemies range from standard guys who just shoot at you that are either grey or blue, there are also enemies that try to go in for a close range melee attack, enemies who throws fire and dynamite in which the dynamite that they drop can be thrown back at them so that you can avoid getting blown up by them. There are also some areas where you can use the ropes to get across, one area where you shoot down the walls and also some areas where there are some obstacles to avoid but these aren't really all that bad to deal with. Boss fights have plenty of henchmen that assist the boss in fighting against you and the bosses themselves have a pattern that is easy enough to memorize so that you can get some bullets into them.
The controls of the Contra games have been faithfully translated into Sunset Riders as well, you can aim your gun in eight directions using the Joystick and one button fires and the other jumps which is easy enough to get the hang of. You can also jump up to a higher ledge which proves handy in avoiding incoming fire plus also jumping to avoid fire when you are on the ropes as well.
Every two levels there is a bonus level where you use the Joystick to shoot down a number of bad guys in a time limit but these are rather boring and uninteresting and don't really add anything aside from earning points. These are moments you don't want to play and just want to play and just want to get on with the next level but thankfully they don't last long. The controls also during the bonus stages are also a pain to get used to as it is difficult to get the crosshair onto an enemy and shoot him before goes away. If you could play those bonus stages with a Light Gun than these would be better.
Sunset Riders is an enjoyable run & gun shooter that is a pick up and play game but it is a very challenging game. You die from one hit by anything including hazards and enemy fire. Enemy fire is slow and easy enough to avoid by jumping or ducking out of the way plus you also have a slide move which offer than to go faster is useful to avoid attacks. You can get into some situations where it becomes near impossible to dodge bullets when there are plenty of enemies on screen to deal with. Having another player join you locally is great enough and it is fun with a friend but if you are playing the four player version and you have all players playing there are more things happening on the screen making the action more chaotic and harder to follow. Despite the difficulty and the terrible bonus stages it is a short yet enjoyable game to breeze through and the game does loop if you wish to go through the game again to continuously boost up your highscore and anybody who enjoys the Contra games will get a lot out of Sunset Riders.
Sunset Riders is a very colourful and beautifully looking arcade game, the areas look great, the character sprites are detailed and are animated really well, the artstyle is really cool and the explosions look brilliant. The soundtrack is incredible with the tunes having such a wild west feel to them while also giving that old school Konami jingle as well. There are also some voice clip lines from the characters as well and they actually sound really good even by today's standards.
This game was ported to the Super Nintendo which plays and looks really close to the Arcade version and even has the arcade introduction mostly intact which as a kid I always found that impressive even for running on such a limited console. It does have some 90s Nintendo Censorship which is understandable considering Nintendo's strict family family policy they had at the time. The SEGA Mega Drive version cuts a lot of levels, bosses and only having two playable characters really makes it a really stripped down and inferior version. Now the arcade version is available for download on modern consoles like the PS4 and the Nintendo Switch and I am truly grateful for this as I was originally looking forward to it coming to Gameroom on the XBox 360 but that never happened. This modern version has some small changes but at least the gameplay isn't affected in any way and it does allow you to modify settings to make the game easier or harder, plus you get to play either the two player version or four player version alongside being able to play Japanese or American versions also. I do appreciate that there are also options for enabling Turbo Fire and I do like that you simulate the arcade experience by pressing a button to add credits in and then pressing start to start the game. The only thing however is that unless you are going to go for a limited credits run this system can make the game too easy because in a sense you have unlimited continues just that you just press a button on your controller to add more. At least there is a mode where you attempt to go through the game with a single credit and see how far you can go as well as a high score mode where you try to get a highest score possible in a single go.
While it is not as amazing as the Contra games but Sunset Riders is still a great game that's enjoyable to play and it is a addition for those who enjoy retro games. This game did come out in a time where both Konami was a really great game company back then and also when wild west themed video games where rarely ever touched on. If you love retro games and enjoyed all of the old Contra games than you should no doubt want to check out Sunset Riders even at it's £ 5.79 price tag on modern systems.
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Game Score: 8.0/10
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Game Title: Sunset Riders
Platform: Arcade
Developer: Konami
Genre: Side Scrolling Shooter/Run & Gun
Age Rating: PEGI: 7+
Release Date: 1991
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The Good Points:
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The Run & Gun gameplay and controls are excellently crafted
It's colourful and the presentation is impressive
Incredible soundtrack
The Bad Points:
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Having 4 players playing makes the action too chaotic and hard to follow
The bonus stages are rather boring and the controls playing those are a pain.
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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