Gun.Smoke

Gun.Smoke is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game created by Capcom in 1985.thumb|300px|right|Gameplay It was ported to the NES and is also included in Capcom Classics Collection. The game, which has a Western theme, centers around a character named Billy Bob, a bounty hunter who is after vicious criminals of the Wild West. This game is considered to be one of the hardest games Capcom ever made.

Gameplay

Gun.Smoke is very similar to Commando, but with several differences. Whereas Commando is a run and gun game, this game is a scrolling shooter in which the screen scrolls upward automatically and players only have three ways to shoot, using three buttons for left, right, and center shooting. However, a player can also change the way Billy shoots through button combinations. A player can still die by getting shot or struck by enemies like in Commando but improve protection by getting special items, including a horse, for protection up to three hits; boots, for speed of movement; bullets, for faster shots; and rifles, for shot length. These items are found by shooting barrels and rifles, boots, and bullets can stock up to five.

Also, there are other items that are used for points like stars, bottles, bags, dragonflies, and cows, but two other items to watch out for are the Yashichi (Capcom's version of a 1-Up) and the cattle skull, which reduces Billy's power. There are obstacles in the game such as streams, buildings, and hills but they do not cause damage to Billy even if he is caught between the screen and the obstacle. The Bosses in the boss battles have a big life gauge with sometimes four to six blocks of life, which proves to be a real challenge to players because they had to survive long enough to take out the boss and various minions.

Levels

Each level in the game is given a name. These are the names of each level and the bosses of them.

• Round 1 - Hicksville - Boss: Bandit Bill - Prize Money: $10,000
• Round 2 - The Boulders - Boss: Cutter Boomerang - Prize Money: $12,000
• Round 3 - Comanche Village - Boss: Devil Hawk - Prize Money: $25,000
• Round 4 - Death Mountain - Boss: Ninja - Prize Money: $20,000
• Round 5 - Cheyenne River - Boss: Fatman Joe - Prize Money: $20,000
• Round 6 - Fort Wingate - Boss: Wingate - Prize Money: $30,000

In both the NES and Famicom Disk System versions of the game, the game has to be beaten 3 times in order to obtain the true ending, in which the player is rewarded with a simple message that types out as "THE END".

Credits

Arcade Version

Gun.Smoke, like many other games during this era of gaming, credited its staff in its default Score Ranking Table, which is as follows:

• 1st 100000 Kura♥Aya
• 2nd 80000 Shi2Kura
• 3rd 60000 ?Sakura?
• 4th 40000 Ota=Big5
• 5th 20000 웃Okamoto

Music

The music for the NES port of the game was composed by Junko Tamiya (credited as Swimmer Tamichan).

Gallery

Billy Bob

Bandit Bill

Cutter Boomerang

Devil Hawk

Ninja

Fatman Joe

Wingate

Billy Bob

Box Art

Japan

U.S.

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