Nintendo Okie

Howdy: 

• Besting your own reaction times can be fun.
• The game’s so bad, it’s good.

See Ya’:

• Terrible acting.
• Wii Remote doesn’t get recognized as well as it should.

What happens when you mix cheesy full-motion video games with the Wild West?  Well, you get Fast Draw Showdown, of course; the light-gun game that sets out to determine who has the quickest draw in the west.  Fast Draw Showdown was originally created by American Laser games, and was one of the last games the company created.  The rights for their library were picked up by Digital Leisure in 2001 and now we’re seeing some of them being released for WiiWare.  In a way it makes sense.  There is no other platform out there that can handle these games as well as Wii.  The Wii Remote is the perfect home analog for an arcade light gun. 

In the game, you’re attempting to show that you’re the fastest draw in the west, hopefully gaining the ability to face off against Wes Flowers, who is the current fastest draw.  You’ll face off against a number of ridiculously cheesy opponents who will spout some nonsense before they attempt to blow you away.  If you’re quicker on the draw, though you’ll move on to face the next opponent.  The game is broken up into rounds of 6 and you have to defeat all 6 opponents before moving on to the next round.  You’re given two opportunities to foul before losing a round.  You foul by pulling your “gun” out of its holster before the appropriate time.  To holster your weapon you simply hold the Wii Remote up or down so that it’s not pointing at the screen.  If you draw too early you’ll be scolded by Wes saying, “How many times do I have to tell you?  Put it back in the holster.”  And be prepared to hear that phrase a lot, because that’s the only thing he says for most of the game.

There are some issues with the Wii Remote being used as a gun in a quick draw game.  The first is that it relies on the motion to determine if you’ve got the gun holstered.  You then have to tilt the gun up so that you can use the pointer to aim at your target and there is a small delay before the Wii Remote’s pointer is picked up.  This can cause you to lose valuable time and could cost you to lose a round.  I did find while playing that if I held the Wii Remote so the pointer moved just off screen it would register as holstered and I could get the pointer to be recognized much quicker.  Holding it down like you would an actual holstered gun would cause too much of a delay and in some rounds you need to have reaction times of less than half a second in order to succeed.  The other is that there is no real indication of when to draw your gun other than your digital opponent reaching for their gun.  It would have been nice if there was some sort of sound, or visual cue for you to draw.  It’s not a great big deal, because after a round or two of dying to the same person you learn their tells and are able to anticipate it a bit better.

Being a full motion video game Fast Draw Showdown has terribly cheesy acting and it’s very obvious by the video quality the game was filmed in the 90’s.  It has not been updated in anyway.  The actors deliver their lines much like you’d expect in a spaghetti western and there were times that they didn’t even bother to cover up the padding that the actors would fall on after being shot.  The other big issue that you’ll see is that there are only a couple different “animations” for deaths.  This will cause a person who is wobbling after being shot to suddenly appear on their knees or on the ground and there is no transition between the two positions. 

All that being said, there is something about playing a game that’s so bad that it can’t help but be good.  The dialog is horrible, and the Wii Remote doesn’t always get recognized the way it should, but that doesn’t stop the fact that I had a lot of fun playing this game.  FMV games have always been known for their so bad it’s good quality and Fast Draw Showdown is no exception.  It was just a lot of fun to make up dialog that fit in with what the other actors were saying and you just have to take it with a grain of salt that it’s not a very good experience.  There is something to be said, though, that once you figure out all the little quirks it’s a lot of fun trying to best your times and learn all the tells of the other shooters.  There is even a two player mode if you and a friend are feeling frisky.  You have the ability to see all your fastest times and it would have been nice to see an online leaderboard that you can compare your times too.  Some of my times ended up being very fast, around .2 seconds or so.  I would really love to see someone take this concept and update it for a more modern gaming era. 

Final Score: 2/5 Below Average

Review copy of the game provided by Digital Leisure.