A whip cracks, a shot rings out and onto the screen rides a quartet of bounty hunters in western garb who wouldn't be daunted even by the toughest spaghetti film. Sunset Riders by Konami is one of the most charismatic arcade games of the 1990s and remains to this day a textbook example of how a run & gun should look to be beloved by whole groups of friends at a single machine.
The player chooses one of four gunslingers – two wielding revolvers, two shotguns – and fights through a series of Wild West scenes full of raiders, jangling spurs and downright comic-book humor. The mechanics are brisk, the controls instantly understandable, and the game bets on the pure joy of shooting: you jump, roll on the ground, aim up and down and mow down hordes of enemies. The highlight of each chapter are the inventive bosses, who have their own look and personality and force you to change tactics.
Konami dominated the arcade scene at the time, and Sunset Riders was created in its golden era, when the studio churned out one hit after another. Visually the game benefits from its varied, richly colored graphics and cartoonish style that lightens the western theme and makes it accessible. The music and the characters' voice lines complete an atmosphere that is more a celebration of the genre than a solemn tribute to it.
Culturally it's a title that made the western setting famous in arcades at a time when it was ruled instead by urban brawls and sci-fi. Thanks to cooperative multiplayer it became a fixture of gaming arcades and later saw home conversions, thanks to which it reached even those who couldn't quite afford to feed the machine coins.
Anyone who fires up Sunset Riders today in one of Konami's legal retro collections will quickly understand why the game holds its reputation as a cult piece. It's immediate, funny and built on instant fun that you don't need to explain at length.
Why play: For a genuine western shooter that's still fun from the very first second even after decades – especially with two or more people.
Game 52 of 258 for Arcade
