Tin Star (SNES)

I've played this one before, though all I can remember about it is it's about a robot sheriff who likes to make bad jokes and do acrobatics while shooting bandits.

The title song is a nice track that sounds more than a little inspired by Ennio Morricone's western themes.

Tin Star lives in a version of the wild west populated with unfunny robots instead of people. Perhaps so the developers could get away with having the player blow enemies into pieces on a Nintendo console.

Oh damn, I've just noticed that they have real hair. That's so weird.

Anyway, Tin Star refuses to take his hat off in the stagecoach (he only takes it off on Sundays), so she forces him to ride on the roof instead.

It's funny how every shooting gallery style game I've found so far seems to be about cowboys. First Lethal Enforcers II, then Wild Guns...

I'd remembered that Tin Star jumps around a bit on screen, and he does not disappoint. He flips onto the stagecoach roof, jumps onto the robot horse, rolls under the carriage, jumps back up again... all while I'm blasting enemies away with the mouse and totally failing to shoot any health canteens as they fall past the screen.

I love that guy hammering the button on his remote to make the horse move faster. Anyone who's played a button tapping mini-game knows his pain.

Enemies generally go down in one hit, but this boss is putting up more of a fight. It doesn't help that he keeps bouncing all over the screen and out of my crosshairs.

Fortunately I don't have to reload. Ever. So he's under constant fire until he finally explodes.

Bonus game! I just have to shoot the stars without accidentally hitting the spinning robot. Or getting distracted by noticing that her hair doesn't move.

Why they're letting Tin Star do this I don't know. Maybe he's just day dreaming about it on the ride to town.

That's a net profit, I can live with that.

Uh, what button gets this screen to go away? Damn, has the game crashed or something? Is this where my Super Adventures in Tin Star end?


LATER.

Ah, turns out I just had to press both mouse buttons at once. How stupid of me to not think of doing that. Wait, 'Save game for $10,000'? That's ridiculous! Outrageous!

Oh fine, I'll pay it. It's not like there's anything else in the game to use the money on. Unless the ending has me paying off a bandit to save the mayor's life or something, and I end up $10,000 short.

Tin Star finally arrives in town with his sidekick Mo, to find the mayor around to welcome him and a suspicious looking plant on the ground. A chivalrous offer to carry the old woman's bags earns him a smack, and he falls backwards onto the flower, crushing it.

It turns out that the flower belonged to Tiny Johnson, an dangerous outlaw, and now he'll be after Tin Star for revenge.

Yeah all that was just set up for another lame joke.

Something about this game reminds me of Plok for some reason, maybe the dialogue. I have a feeling it might be by the same people.

Now I'm on a first person saloon shoot out level, and I'm not doing so great. I've been a little too slow on some of the kills, and the enemy's shots are chipping away at my health fast.



TWO LIVES LATER.

I've figured out what I've been doing wrong! I've been shooting these enemies holding townsfolk as they soon as walked on screen. But that kills the captive too and I lose a chunk of health. I need to wait until they start pummelling the guy before I shoot them. That way they're holding them at arms length and I have a clear shot.

Now I know that this is turning out way easier. Shame I've got no lives left now.

Next level, back to third person view. And for once I manage to shoot a falling object. Shame it was dynamite and not a health canteen. Dynamite's easier to hit because it's usually falling directly onto Tin Star's head.

This tune is starting to get to me now. It was great on the first level, but that was before I had to listen to it on every other level since then. Also the constant mooing from the robot cows isn't helping either.

I meet Tiny Johnson at last!  And I have no idea what to do on this level at all. It says draw at the top, but if I fire at him nothing happens.

He just stands there soaking up bullets until he can be bothered to fire back. Then we're back to 'DRAW' again.

I tried wait for him to draw, he's too fast for me to get a shot in first. I don't get what I'm meant to be doing here!

AHA! It turns out I have to shoot the circle under 'DRAW', then shoot him. And then I need to keep doing that, because apparently a huge hole in his gut isn't a lethal wound.

Day one is finally over. Only six more to go.

No idea what a robot needs a bath and a stove for. Or a bed for that matter.

Hey, that picture above his bed seems to be of a horse with legs. But the robot animals hover in this, they don't have legs! This blatant inconsistency is ruining my immersion.

Or maybe it's a picture of a house. I don't know.

Killing these guys wouldn't be so hard if I could just see the little bastards.

There's a reason why on most train levels in games they show you the inside of the train.

Surprise Gatling gunfire up the ass. Back to the last save then.


ONE TRAIN LEVEL REPLAY LATER.

Why is this robot hiding in a train boiler? He's supposed to be robbing the train, not living in it.

Never mind, he's a total pushover because I can actually see him, he stays in one place, and he throws bombs at me as his attack which are pretty easy to shoot out of the air.

I really hate these little bastards that jump out from behind rocks though. They always seem to get a shot off before I can get the crosshair over to their heads to shoot them.

Nice parallax scrolling effect on the level though. It looks great in motion.

Mo's sinister older brother appears and suddenly things take a turn for the serious. He warns Tin Star that a guy called Snake Oil is out to kill him. Tin Star is unconcerned.

Hey Snake Oil's looks like some kind of... green slime monster. Whatever, I know what I'm doing now so this is going to be a cakewalk.

This level's not a cakewalk! It's full of these damn enemies springing out of the foreground and distracting me while their friends shoot me from the background. Or vice versa!

And if I actually manage to kill all of those little gits before they kill me, I often find that one of them has climbed on top of the jail and BOOOOOOOM!

The jail is blown open, and Snake Oil escapes. No matter how much I shoot at him he gets away off screen. Game over.


Yeah I think I'm done with this now. It looks great, sounds great and the gameplay isn't bad for what it is. But this level has worn away the last of my resolve, and I'm still only on day three. Next game.