Light Gun Shooter
October 1985 (Nintendo)
Hogan’s Alley was the actual first light gun game for the Famicom. In some ways I think it’s better than Duck Hunt. Yes, I think the Holy Grail of shooting games needs to move over a bit. Here’s a quick look at what makes this game better.
- It has different game modes that are actually different. While Duck Hunt has the choice of 1 or 2 ducks (and the clay pigeons1 in the version packaged with Super Mario Bros.), Hogan’s Alley has a shooting gallery mode, an around town mode, and a trick shot mode where you shoot a can to keep it in the air.
- It’s a better game on the emulator. You don’t have as long to shoot who you’re supposed to shoot so you have to be quick. Quick enough that you can’t just aim at a person and wait for them to show up.
- You can actually shoot stuff you’re not supposed to shoot. Don’t like someone? Pretend they’re one of the good guys and shoot them. It’ll get a game over quicker, but that’s OK.
Of course, Duck Hunt is still the golden standard and will always be considered the best light gun game ever. But Hogan’s Alley should be right there.
- I always though they were flying saucers. [↩]
