Retro Review – Gun: Showdown

<p>Sony&&num;8217&semi;s PSP was treated like the stepchild of handhelds&period; No one&comma; including Sony&comma; really put any effort into giving the system some amazing PSP only titles&period; Instead&comma; we got ports&comma; remakes&comma; and shovelware&period; Now&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t get me wrong&comma; some of these remakes and ports were pretty darn amazing&period; And it&&num;8217&semi;s nice to have them on the go&comma; but Sony never delivered on the Nintendo DS killer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gun<&sol;em> was originally released in 2005 as a launch title for the Xbox 360&period; In 2006 Sony decided to release a port of this game on the PSP called <em>Gun&colon; Showdown&period;<&sol;em> They added a few new features for interested gamers&period; Rebellion brought this port to the PSP and they didn&&num;8217&semi;t do too terrible of a job&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137315" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137315" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-137315" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;04&sol;10004823&sol;GUN&lowbar;Showdown&lowbar;-&lowbar;Escape&lowbar;Ambush&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"361" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137315" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Gun&colon; Showdown<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3>About The Story<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The story is the same as the initial launch&period; You play as Colton White and get dragged into some Wild West violence&period; This violence eventually gets your father killed and the steamboat you are currently a passenger of destroyed&period; Before your father&comma; Ned&comma; dies he tells you to find a whore named Jenny in Dodge City&semi; he also tells you that he&&num;8217&semi;s not your pa&period; This sets Colton&&num;8217&semi;s whole adventure in motion&period; You must find Jenny and find out what she knows about your past all while trying to stay alive in a land of vicious killers&comma; Indians&period; This original story by Randall Jahnson is one of the better ones to come out of Activision&period; I suggest a playthrough with this classic title&comma; just for the story alone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>The Voice Acting<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>One thing about Activision is that they do like to throw money at games to make them pretty top notch&period;<em> Gun<&sol;em> and <em>Gun&colon; Showdow <&sol;em>are no different&period; This game must have had a huge voice-over budget&period; As I was playing I knew I recognized some of the voices&period; But then I looked it up to make sure&period; The first Punisher himself&comma; Thomas Jane takes on the role of Colton White&period; Ned is played by Blade&&num;8217&semi;s buddy Kris Kristofferson two damn good actors lending their voice to this game is pretty sweet&period; However&comma; they aren&&num;8217&semi;t the only ones&comma; Ron Perlman&comma; Lance Henriksen&comma; and Tom Skerritt also are part of the cast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>The Graphics<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The PSP&&num;8217&semi;s graphics are also nothing to shake a stick at&period; Once I found out the game was a port I compared the Xbox 360 and PSP graphics&period; There really wasn&&num;8217&semi;t THAT big of a difference&period; There was some slowdown on the PSP&comma; but if that&&num;8217&semi;s the only way you can play this game you should&period; I would suggest the Xbox 360 version&comma; but if you don&&num;8217&semi;t have one the PSP is the way to go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137316" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137316" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-137316" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;04&sol;10004852&sol;gun-showdown-810x456&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137316" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Gun&colon; Showdown<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3>The Controls<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The controls are kind of tough on the PSP since it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have a second thumbstick&period; But I got the hang of them pretty quickly&period; Obviously&comma; thumbstick is move Colton&period; The face buttons move the camera&comma; this is difficult&period; But I played some <em>Siphon Filter<&sol;em> on the PSP so I returned to my groove pretty fast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Right Trigger is draw weapon and it is also fire&comma; to holster your weapon you have to press down on the D-pad and press X&period; Pressing up on the D-pad is quick-draw&comma; this allows you to slow time and take kill shots at your foes&period; If you get shot up pretty bad press right on the D-pad&period; Your whiskey bottle will empty a bit and refill your health&period; If your pistol is not the weapon for the job press left on the D-pad to cycle through your current weapons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Mini-Games<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The additions to the PSP version aren&&num;8217&semi;t the greatest additions to a port that I&&num;8217&semi;ve seen&period; You get a bunch of mini-games&period; If you can&&num;8217&semi;t defeat the first challenge in the first mini-game you&&num;8217&semi;ll never be able to continue&period; You can hunt quail&comma; bears&comma; play some Texas Hold &&num;8217&semi;em&comma; or even fight off hoards of criminals in quick bursts in case you don&&num;8217&semi;t have time to jump into the main campaign of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Multiplayer<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>You also get some multiplayer options should you have friends with this game or you happen to find me playing online&period; There are three for your enjoyment the common Deathmatch&comma; an interesting one named Golden Cross where you win if you hold the Cross the longest in the match&comma; and of course&comma; some more Texas Hold &&num;8217&semi;em&period; Not the best additions&comma; but obviously not the worst&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137318" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137318" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-137318" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;04&sol;10005046&sol;gunshowdown&lowbar;sc002&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137318" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Gun&colon; Showdown<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I enjoyed replaying this game on my PSP&comma; it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t as epic as the first time I played it&comma; but it was still a fun experience&period; If you really want to get the full effect of this 2005 game I would go the route of the Xbox 360&comma; not only will you be getting the best graphics<em> Gun<&sol;em> has to offer&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll also get those precious Achievements&period; This is a great game to go back to should you be pining for <em>Red Dead Redemption 2<&sol;em>&semi; I know this title isn&&num;8217&semi;t as epic as Rockstar&&num;8217&semi;s series&comma; but it really is a fun game that lets you be a cowboy&period; Pick this up if you like the Wild West and shooting your old revolver at bandits and Indians&comma; you won&&num;8217&semi;t regret it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;