It’s crazy to see what’s possible on a downloadable Wii game these days. Growing up in the eighties and nineties meant that I saw games like Fast Draw Showdown in mall arcades in person (man, I feel old). And they ate a lot of quarters from me and my friends. Yes kids, there was a time when FMV games were amazing. Fast Draw Showdown was a popular laser-disc game which combined sliced up video of actors with light guns to fascinate arcade dwelling teens in the nineties. Thanks to Digital Leisure a lot of these games are getting new life on WiiWare. Do they wax nostalgic or age rough?
Fast Draw Showdown pits you against an array of characters all aiming to take you down the old-fashioned way, with some quick shootin’. The goal is to draw on your gun slingin’ counterpart before they fill you full of lead. You’ll do this by following the simple directions on screen. Simply keep your gun (Wiimote) holstered (pointing down or off screen) until the screen says “Draw”. Then stop waiting and start shooting by raising your Wiimote and hitting that trigger until your opponent goes down or a bullet hole fills your screen. Following a win, it’s off to the next challenger.
You’ll face six gun slingers in each round. The difficulty will increase by lowering your draw time in each advancing round. While everything is pretty simple, if you get shot once, you’ll have to repeat the round from the beginning. Everything moves pretty quickly with tiny intros for each pistol packing enemy right before you fight. And true to WiiWare form, the violence is limited to fast death scenes that feature no blood.
As stated before, everything in Fast Draw Showdown is pretty simple. And honestly I’m still surprised that a game which once required a laser-disc to be playable is now available as a simple WiiWare download. And when you consider the $5 (500 Wii Points) price tag, it’s almost a must for some quick fun. This isn’t a title you’ll spend hours upon hours dissecting and mastering. But Fast Draw Showdown was never meant to be that kind of game. It is what it always has been, fun in small doses. If you’re over the age of 25, you have to grab this for nostalgia purposes alone. Younger audiences will still enjoy the fun for the low price. Either way, now when you’re done playing, you don’t have to call your parents to pick you up at the mall.
Graphics | Audio | Gameplay | Replay | Genre | Final |
