NES Game Reviews #178Â – Gumshoe
Why, why, why am I putting myself through this ordeal. I feel like I’ve just been through a meat grinder. If there’s one lesson this challenge continues to force down my throat, it’s that entering into a new game presuming it will be a quick affair, is a rookie mistake that’s most severely punished!
If shooting NES ducks is too challenging don’t even bother putting Gumshoe in your console. While the premise is wonderfully original; the aim to guide an overweight, bearded, 70s pimp lookalike across 4 levels, not only shooting enemies and hazards but also the hero himself to bump him over pits and avoid death blocks. Put into practice its next to impossible, at least for me at the recommended 6ft distance.
After MANY attempts, I still couldn’t make it past the first level. With only 3 lives it just didn’t seem possible! The manual eluded to there being continues though I couldn’t find one and with Google results being anything from misleading to completely wrong, I was fighting a losing battle to find it. Eventually, I find if you shoot either the word ‘game’ or ‘over’ you can continue from the beginning of the stage. You get one chance at this, miss and your back to the start of the game! Its Adventure Island all over again! What is wrong with these developers? As if the game isn’t already hard enough. Inevitably you’re going to mess up the continue at some point (4 times for me), its a cruel, final middle finger to the player.
As you can see from my video clip, to beat this I had to resort to sitting about 2 ft from the screen. To anyone unfamiliar with this game, that might seem like it would render it easy? ?? even at that range it took me over 6hrs to beat it. Until you know exactly what’s coming (patterns aren’t the same each time either), you’ve got no chance. Hats off to anyone who can beat this from 6ft using PAL, which use smaller hit boxes.
By the end my arm was so weak I had to fashion an arm rest for between shots. The fatigue was causing considerably pain in my wrist and the endless white flashing left me close to a seizure! Oh this all so worth it!
And to think I still have the hardest Light Gun game to come… Thank the lord!
My mission to complete every NES game (234) released in the UK using original hardware & no cheats. For Mental Health UK charity. Support or donate ?www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cabines
