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jp's Wild Guns: Reloaded (PS4)

[January 3, 2019 07:18:26 PM]

I always need to remind myself that sometimes a game isn't too hard - I'm just playing it wrong. It's a lesson I need reminding of every now and then because I play enough games that I feel like I should "know" how to play most of them (even if poorly) AND we've reached a point in which teaching the player and tutorials are a common and natural part of videogames. There are few games that expect you to figure them out as you play them.

I picked this one up on a lark - it seemed fun from the box and I was not familiar with the series (I assume there's a series). 4-player co-op was also a draw.

The first time I put it in (to play with my son) didn't go that well. We weren't able to clear the first stage and the game just felt awkward and bad. Namely two things: First, every 3-4 times I fired my character would do a special move that "sort of stunned" opponents. It was awkward and I wanted to keep on firing, did I really need to do this special move? Second, You control the characters movement on the screen (left/right + jump) but the reticule (for firing) is SORT of tied to the characters movement, it's kind of "squishy" - sometimes your character is close to it, sometimes not, so you have to sort of dance around the screen to get the reticule where you want it.

It seemed terrible and I could make much sense of it.

So, I checked some online reviews and meta-scores. They all were pretty decent. So, this was not a case of the game sucking, but rather my not understanding it. Rather, not understanding how to play it.

So, I played solo a bit.

Then a bit more.

I tried things out and suddenly (at least for the dog character, I didn't try the others) it all clicked: Once your reticule was over an enemy, KEEP THE BUTTON PRESSED! Then you can move around and the reticule stays in place. Let go and quickly press it again and it often jumps to another enemy close by. No more "stun" thing and, it made it a lot easier to move around the screen and dodge enemy attacks. I then cleared two levels and almost a third. Ha!

The game is still not really my cup of tea BUT, I now understand how you're supposed to play it (at a basic level, there's some score combo stuff as well) and I felt good about sticking with it until I figured it out. I still don't think the controls are a good idea - but at least I understand how they're supposed to work and I could achieve moderate success (based on trophy completion rate as reported on PSN)! Yay!