Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack (Wii)

I paid money for this.

Growing up, back in my demo days, I had the chance to play many game demos that were, shall we say, less than mainstream. Some weren’t even “main creek.”

The Last Bounty Hunter was one such demo. It’s the last of a three-game series called Mad Dog McCree that uses rail-shooter mechanics in an FMV environment. The game has multiple pre-shot scenarios that are—pun intended—“triggered” by the player’s shooting. My distant memory of this game was of playing it on the PC, but it was released for many platforms.

One day I decided to track the game down and give it a fresh view. Searching in the most forbidden and remote reaches of the Internet (Amazon.com), I finally tracked them down. All of them. Together. For cheap. DONE!

Cue awesomeness.

Apparently the game was re-released in 2009 for the Nintendo Wii. It even has multiplayer capability (up to four cowpokes). It’s actually cool to see some of these bizarre games getting a fresh audience. (I’m still waiting for Stonekeep to get the Wii treatment.) I also just discovered that you can now get Mad Dog for iOS. A game that started on the arcade went from PC to Wii to iPhone. Odd, to say the least. But the Mad Dog games have a lot of footage and actual (limited) production value. What else were they going to do with it?

No refunds.

In the PC version, the player uses the mouse to aim and shoot. It’s pretty straightforward. But I found that clicking someone to death with a mouse makes it go by too quickly. You can’t savor all the little emotions… In their last moments, people show you who they really are.

Clumsily regurgitated Dark Knight quotes aside, I turned on my Wii, and begrudgingly ejected Skyward Sword. I started the game. I think using the Wiimote as an aiming method is much more satisfying than using the mouse. It feels pretty natural.

At this point, I am locked and loaded. My target? C-list actors. The setting? A mediocre western town. The reason?

Just fucking because.

I know, I know, I’m back on the live-action videogame kick; but I can’t help but be fascinated by them. I mean, it’s one thing to be responsible for making a poor videogame. But how many people get to say they starred in one? I’m not even talking about voice acting, 3D motion capture, or animated characters based on real people (Paul and Lizo’s testgame shall not be mentioned). These people were actually filmed at close proximity, barking out lines to the camera and shooting at it as if it were an actual person. You can’t help but feel bad for some of those actors. This was supposed to be their big chance. I wonder if any of these “actors” ever made it big.

Probably not.

For me, the entire concept of live actors in a videogame is unsettling. I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s because these are real actors who have real families.

Let me explain. Pretend that this is your father:

In the early ’90s, as a struggling actor, he did a few low-budget endeavors. The Last Bounty Hunter was one of them. Years later, the game is used as a conversation piece in your home, and everyone gathers around the Wii and shares a good laugh over it on a regular basis. Over the years, as his health deteriorates, the novelty of interacting with your father’s character (by shooting his punk ass and watching him hilariously fall into the horse trough) slowly becomes less funny. It represents his failed dream as an actor and reminds him how young he once was. When he finally passes away 30 years from now, you will still be able to play the game and murder him, over and over. It stops being funny.

Your mother, on the other hand, who was the victim of your father’s unfaithfulness with the saloon girl from the opening video, still replays it.

Every day.

This game is a trip. It took me hours to figure out the best way to explain it, but I finally figured it out. We’re supposed to think that the game is merely about a bounty hunter killing bad guys. The truth? Three words: Cameraman goes postal. He has simply had enough. He was tired of filming B and C movies like this soon-to-be VHS piece of shit. So he snapped. He goes on a rampage and begins shooting everyone he can on the set. The sick part is that, for some reason, he filmed the whole thing with his free hand. WHY?

The producers find the film amongst the bodies and salvage the project by re-marketing it as a “game.” And while none of the above paragraph is true, I can’t help but feel comforted by that thought.

I’m going to sum up the review by going a bit western on ya. Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good: The game is fun. I liked all the different characters and settings you get to see along the way. The fallen enemies sometimes die in funny ways (just like in real life, right?), reminding me of the many shitty movies that are so dear to my heart. (I love bad movies.) Explosions, guys falling off of horses, and other western shenanigans are all present and accounted for. The aiming is also surprisingly smooth. In fact, the port is overall well suited for the Wii. Playing a game with this level of novelty is a pretty unique experience. It’s more movie than videogame.

The bad: The biggest gripe I have about this game is the delay between you shooting your opponent, and your opponent getting shot. This is due to the game having to load the correct video of either hitting or missing your opponent. The video freezes at the worst time possible. There’s a second when you don’t know if you shot him or got shot yourself. I might have been able to deal with this quirk by itself, but it also causes the music to stop for that second. This really ruins the flow of the gameplay and almost kills the experience entirely.

There’s also a great deal of trial and error needed to beat the game. Prepare to die, a lot. Replaying the same levels over and over again is annoying, for sure. But the cutscenes you have to endure after you get shot are so damn annoying after seeing them for the 24th time in a row.

The ugly:

The actors.

Bobby plugging the “bung hole.”

I know the budget could only allow for so many “lookers,” but yikes. I didn’t know whether to save some of these women or ride them with a saddle (or both). Also, the video quality looks like old home movies. I completely understand this one. The cameras used for filming it have long been obsolete. But it isn’t the prettiest picture. Finally, the menu layout (on the Wii version) is a bit lackluster and boring.

In all, Mad Dog McCree has “drinking game” written all over it. It has its annoying glitches, but there’s also a lot of fun packed into this game for anyone willing to push past its issues. I had a blast with it. But I am not your average gamer. I find humor and novelty in the awful. This might be a game to check out if you’re a risk taker.

Like this guy.

Police Quest 4: Open Season (PC) Stonekeep (PC) Sunset Riders (SNES) [NSFW] Haunt (XBLA)