The game is set in a mythologized wild west with lots of bad guys to murder. There's a boss at the end of each level (natch).
It alternates stages between:
* Nam-1975 style behind-the-back shooting along a scrolling scene. The player can move left and right, move the aim cursor all over, shoot, or throw dynamite
* Belt-scrolling with Z-depth. The player can move up, down, left or right and get onto the proper plane to attack enemies. The player can shoot (hold A) or punch (tap A or press X), crouch (hold B) or jump (tap B or press Y) and throw dynamite in an arc (press C). There is also a jump kick.
You have a health bar; most injuries cost half a health unit but some will take a full unit.
There are the usual pickups like health and dynamite restock, along with different (ammo-limited) gun upgrades.
Between rounds you get a report of kills, accuracy, etc. and that results in a health refill.
With polish the game could have been good, but I'd give it a C+ at best.
Above average:
- Music and sound is great. Voice samples are clear; there's enough variety here to keep it compelling.
- Presentation is great. Very cinematic, mildly reminiscent of Turbo CD games of the era. Sprite art is good and at par with the end of the Genesis' lifecycle.
- Threats are handled well. There are bullet patterns on the Cabal-like stages and there are enough of them flying that you do have to think and prioritize. Thugs surround at the right time and (mostly) honorably obey Kung-Fu rules.
- Controls: The tap vs. hold to accommodate a 3 button-pad, which is present even if using a 6-button pad, impacts the gameplay. This results in a game that feels laggy and you can't quite trust that you'll get the action you want. Character movement is fine. They don't let you duck or melee in the Cabal-style stages, which feels like a missed opportunity, so your only controls are move/aim, shoot, and throw dynamite.
- AI: Zako enemies are fine, but bosses are lackluster. I don't think I even saw the first boss (a cannon you must destroy to proceed) ever shoot at me. The second stage boss just jumps around over you, and you shoot him when he lands, then he jumps over you again.
- Tuning: Easy difficulty feels barren, with too few bullets onscreen. On Medium, enemies feel a little too spongy.
- Bugs: On my first playthrough, I died right as I killed the second stage boss. This resulted in a broken score tally screen (no text visible, just the background). On the subsequent stage, it brought up the continue screen after a bit, but I think all sprites were missing.
- Polish: It is odd that the tutorial tells you how to do all of your moves, but the first screen is a Cabal-style one, where most of the moves they just instructed you on don't even work. Picking up items requires you to be over them and press A (throwing a punch doesn't pick it up), which is annoying and unnecessary, and often results in firing your pistols, which impacts your accuracy rating.