ST Format


Buffalo Bill's Wild West Rodeo Games

Author: Gary Barrett
Publisher: Tynesoft
Machine: Atari ST

 
Published in ST Format #2

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Rodeo Games

The legendary character from the Wild West, Colonel Bill Cody, has gained computerised fame in Tynesoft's latest release. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was famous for its demonstrations of skill with knife, gun, lasso and animals and people used to travel from miles around to see the western equivalent of a circus. Now you too can take part in that show and get hordes of relatives clustering around your ST.

There are six events in the show: knife throwing, trick shooting, bronco riding, stagecoach rescue, calf roping and steer wrestling. The action begins with knife throwing where an Indian squaw is strapped (don't get excited!) to a large wheel which spins around. You throw knives at the wheel and unless you're particularly sadistic try to miss the squaw. Hit her and the screen turns a bloody colour.

Trick shooting is played similarly, only this time you're firing at cardboard cutouts which include little children, sheriffs, women and of course bad guys. You're only supposed to shoot the bad guys though, but an odd pot shot at a kid never does anyone any harm, apart from the kid of course.

Buffalo Bill's Rodeo Games

Bronco riding is next up and this takes some serious joystick manipulation if you want to stay on for more than a second. The stagecoach rescue involves galloping along on your horse trying to catch a naughty little Indian who has captured the stage. First of all you have to waggle your way towards the coach avoiding luggage which the injun bungs at you and then you climb on board the coach. A fist fight ensues; all this action must be completed within a time limit.

Cruelty to cows comes next with your task being to lasso a calf in as short a time as possible and then bring it to a halt. Finally there's steer wrestling in which you chase the steer, jump on it, grab it by the horns and try to overbalance it using all your strength - or weight! Time is again of the essence.

The graphics are excellent with loads of colour and detail. They've got the space though because Buffalo Bill comes on three disks. Music and sound effects are good too and the overall impression is that a lot of time and effort went into the appearance, both visible and audible.

There's not really enough gameplay within to make for an exciting and long-lasting game. It has initial novelty value and mastering the events will take both time and skill, but in the long term you'll find yourself becoming bored.

Gary Barrett

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