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THE MOST ICONIC LIGHT GUN SHOOT 'EM UPS EVER - SPONSORED BY LE SPICED BEAN CAFE

30/8/2018

11 Comments

 
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"Hey, everybody! Welcome to The Most Iconic Light Gun Shooters ever, sponsored by Le Spiced Bean Cafe. I'm Gulliver Sullivan, owner and chief barista here at Spiced Bean, and I'd like to offer you all a 10% discount on your next order of raw muffins.

"Just use the code 'spicedbeanlightgun20' when you come in and we'll fix you right up. Can't wait to see you guys! We just finished a refurb down here at Le Spiced Bean, and the joint is looking FRIGID! We stripped everything back to the raw brickwork, and It is deck, brah! 

"But hey - enough of my hard-sell, let's get on and check out the most iconic light gun shoot 'em ups of all time! It's gonna be wack, yo!"

DUCK HUNT
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One of only two console-only entries on this list, Nintendo's Duck Hunt is as iconic as games get. Its status is all the more remarkable given that - presumably due to its bloodsport theme - it's one of the few Nintendo blockbusters never to get a sequel.

What isn't generally known is that Duck Hunt was - in certain respects - itself a sequel, specifically to a 1976 mechanical Nintendo toy thing developed by Game Boy inventor Gunpei Yokoi. It did this: projected ducks onto the wall of your home. Look, here it is now:
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WILD GUNMAN
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Just like Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman was inspired by a Gunpei Yokoi light gun projection nonsense - albeit one that had appeared in arcades. Gunpei Yokoi? More like "Guns Please" Yokoi!!!!! Though only ever commercially released for the NES, the more familiar version of Wild Gunman did appear in Back to the Future Part 2 as an arcade machine - or "baby's toy". Here's the original Wild Gunman now:
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"Hope you're all enjoying the list. Just wanted to let everyone know that things are pretty primo for me right now. Preeeeeetty primo indeed. Le Spiced Bean is going great guns. We do an adorbs artisan almond latte onto which we sprinkle just a handful of soy-roasted chia seeds, and it is to die for! Don't forget to grab one when you're next in town.

"Oh - and while I have you, Saturday nights are party night down at Le Spiced Bean. We've got stellar DJ Odin on the decks, and entry is free before 10pm! You only need to remember two things: your dancing shoes, and an empty belly for the all-you-can-eat seitan buffalo tenders ! LOL!"
OPERATION WOLF
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Do you think Wolf from Gladiators has ever had to have an operation in a hospital? If so, do you think he or the surgeons working on him were aware of the game Operation Wolf? And if they were, that they made a joke about it? It scarcely matters to be honest. The main thing to remember about Taito's Operation Wolf - released in 1987 - is that it pretty much gave birth to the modern arcade light gun shooter genre. 
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"Whassssssaaaaaap!!!!!? Ha ha. Yep - that's the kind of craziness you can expect down here at Le Spiced Bean. We're like a family - a crazy family. Sure, we fall out from time to time, but what family doesn't? I mean, even my wife isn't talking to me right now, and she left me and took the kid because of that tiny - barely nothing - infraction with that college student we had working here over the summer. Heck, at least I got my Spiced Bean family at my shoulder! Whazzzzzaaaaappp, Spiced Bean Family?!?!!!!!! LMAO."
DYNAMITE DUKE
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Though not associated with Operation Wolf, Seibu Kaihatsu's Dynamite Duke played very similarly. The key difference was that - unlike most light gun games - it was played in third-person rather than from a first-person perspective. Seemingly realising that this was a mistake, Seibu made Duke's torso transparent, allowing you to see through him to his enemies - making him the first "trans" video game protagonist!!!
MAD DOG McCREE
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A 1990 laserdisc shooter, Mad Dog McCree certainly turned heads in arcades, due to its live action footage. It was developed by American Laser Games, who had previously developed training simulators for the police, or "po-po". The eponymous antagonist, Mad Dog, was played by a local rancher in New Mexico, where American Laser Games was based. Idiots will no doubt become engorged to hear that the guts of the cabinet were based upon an Amiga 500 motherboard.
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"Sorry for mentioning the situation with my wife just now. Just want you to know that, all round, I'm feeling pretty zen about life. Things are going great, and not even all those reports of there being bears in the local area is gonna knock me off my stride."
LETHAL ENFORCERS
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Using digitised footage rather than streaming its graphics from a laserdisc, Konami's Lethal Enforcers received criticism for its allegedly realistic violence. Famously, it was ported to most home systems - bundled with a pair of brightly-coloured light-guns; a blue one for boys, and a pink one for girls.
VIRTUA COP
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Finally bringing the light gun genre into 3D, Sega's Virtua Cop remains one of the most influential games of all time. Its legacy extends not just to on-rails shooters, but free-roaming first-person games, including Rare's Goldeneye 007. Goldeneye's director Martin Hollis admits that "the gameplay model was Virtua Cop with a bit of Doom, plus some Mario 64".
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"Coo-eee! Any big bears up in the hizzaaaaayyy?!"
TIME CRISIS
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The first light gun game which gave the player the ability to dive into cover - by pressing down on a foot pedal - Namco's Time Crisis (and its later sequels) were known for their absurd, over-the-top, action. It's one of the few light gun franchises which have endured, with Time Crisis 5 being released as recently as 2015. Get this: it now features TWO pedals, allowing you to choose where exactly you want to take cover. 
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HOUSE OF THE DEAD
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Mixing the slightly silly horror of Resident Evil with the finesse of its Virtua Cop series, Sega's House of the Dead boasted branching paths through the levels.

Oddly, the Saturn port of House of the Dead featured the voice of NASA astronaut Richard A. Covey saying "Challenger, go at throttle up" - the final words spoken by Mission Control before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. Notably, Sega released a spin-off - a reworked version of House of the Dead 2 - called Typing of the Dead, in which players defeated zombies by typing words as quickly as possible. You know: just like in real life.

House of the Dead is the only game on this list to have been treated to a terribly-received film adaptation (plus a sequel), directed by the amusingly-named Uwe Boll. 
SILENT SCOPE
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Arguably the last, great, arcade light gun shooter, Komami's Silent Scope was a more considered and precise reworking of the usual scattershot light gun formula. Mounted on the arcade version was a sniper rifle. In addition to being able to see the full screen, the light gun scope featured a smaller screen which offered a zoomed-in view of the scene. Digitiser The Show co-host Larry Bundy Jr has one in his back garden.
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11 Comments
combat_honey
30/8/2018 11:53:57 am

I remember playing Operation Wolf on holiday when I was very young, and therefore not tall enough to aim properly with the light gun. As such, I didn't kill a single enemy and ran out of ammo, prompting a game over screen telling me that I'd been captured. I can still remember the sting of indignity.

I also remember playing Mad Dog Mcree, and it just flat-out didn't work, with the 'actors' not in any way responding to my shots. Virtua Cop, Time Crisis and Silent Scope were amazing, though. And I've just remembered Point Blank! I absolutely loved that, and ended up buying the PS1 version of it with the Namco Guncon.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
30/8/2018 12:24:04 pm

Do be careful making fun of Uwe Boll, Biffo. He once got so sick of people making fun of his movies that he challenged a bunch of his internet critics to an actual fight in a proper boxing ring. Some of them took up the offer only to learn that rather than just some nutter hosting an amusing publicity stunt, he was once an amateur boxer, and far better at that than he was as a director. It did not end well for any of them.

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DEAN
30/8/2018 12:28:17 pm

Where's Duck Hunt now?
In his grave!

Great to have you back, Mr B.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
30/8/2018 02:46:39 pm

No Terminator 2? Get OUT. It put a reticule on-screen so you could avoid shooting the Goonies (read: Resistance soldiers) in the foreground.

Duck Hunt Vs let you shoot that cunting mumless dog.

Lethal Enforcers was meant to help you by virtues of all the bad guys wearing sunglasses. But in the El level, there is a guy holding a camera who rises up from behind a turnstile to take your picture and was a perfect trap for the nervous shooterer.

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NIALL
30/8/2018 03:41:51 pm

I loved Time Crisis, still play it in the arcade when I'm there. Even bought a light gun for the PlayStation that had kickback.

More importantly the worst film I ever watched in the cinema and had me the closest I've come to leaving ever was House of the Dead. I never knew there was a sequel and now I must watch it.

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Floop
30/8/2018 07:44:46 pm

seitan buffalo tenders?
Thats altogether too much gluten for your average hipster metabolism to cope with.

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Dominic
30/8/2018 11:25:39 pm

I’m going to Spiced Bean Cafe in Ireland tomorrow and I’m going to DEMAND my discount.

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James Walker link
31/8/2018 12:12:14 am

The best were those light gun rifle things set in the old west. Y’know, where you shot real things and you could shoot the bog, and the bog door would open and there would be a dummy cowboy sitting on the bog. They were ace!!

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Heeden
31/8/2018 11:05:51 pm

Well, that Spiced Bean saga took an unexpectedly grim turn.

Anyway, here are the memories this article dredged up from decades past;
Operation Wolf's gun had some sort of recoil thing that would punch you in the mouth if you tried to aim down the sight. The machine in my local swimming baths had this disabled at some point.
Operation Wolf had a sequel called Operation Thunderbolt that allowed for 2 players.
I never found a light-gun game I was actually good at.

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Marro
1/9/2018 08:27:12 pm

Operation Thunderbolt was based (a bit) on the IDF's rescue of skyjacked hostages at Entebbe in 1976.

Also the Game and Watch Oil Panic was based on the OPEC Crisis of the early 70s...maybe...

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Marro
1/9/2018 08:12:25 pm

So Guru Larry's got a Silent Scope cabinet in his garden - must be nice. Does he have a sickly urchin stand over it with an umbrella when it rains?

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