I'm at least a casual historian where Jesse James is concerned, and I seem to remember he had a brother, Frank. Frank is nowhere to be found in this game, replaced apparently by the more notorious and handsome Cole Younger. In reality, Cole rode with the James Gang after serving with Jesse in the Civil War, and ended up leaving both of his brothers dead in prison after a failed bank robbery and massacre in Northfield, MN. Sure, it's more exciting to have Jesse and Cole (at least by their surnames a reasonable facsimile of the James-Younger gang) play off one another in
Gunfighter, instead of making a Wild West equivalent of the beaches at Normandy. And, while a little videogame rewrite of the history books may infuriate an already livid Joe Lieberman, if we're going to be a nation of blood-hungry, nihilistic malcontents, who cares whether we know our history?
Getting into the action doesn't take long. Jesse and Cole ride into town to convince the girl Jesse loves to come with them, but strangely enough the den of iniquity she calls her 9-to-5 is crawling with desperadoes and thugs. The story eventually reveals them as henchmen of Jack Carson, a lawman who hung up his badge along with his morals, ethics and good credit rating. With Cole injured and your girl Zee in Carson's unwashed hands, you'll take up Jesse's gun and clean up the town, the hills, the train, the mine and the town again. That town is just lousy with banditos! Each stage is made up of many small scenes where you stop and blast away a few waves of bad guys before moving on. Each stage has a countdown clock that is pretty generous, but if you run out of time you'll go back to the beginning. This discourages those folks who might choose to stay under cover too long. Jesse can take 4 bullets before giving up the ghost, and you'll see 4 Aces at the bottom of the screen to represent health. Shooting a Tin of Beans can restore one Ace, and shooting a Pocket Watch adds a few ticks to the timer. Find and shoot a wanted poster, and you'll even get an extra continue. You'll want to spend the majority of your time blasting bad guys, and of course the bosses who show up now and again. The bosses are especially fun, and after you defeat a guy with a Gatling Gun, you have a chance to take over his gun and feel the power. Nice!
Besides the main Story Mode, Gunfighter offers Arcade and Sub-Games Mode. Apparently, Ubi Soft chooses to deprecate the use of 'minigame' verbage and promote the more Nietschian 'sub-games,' but what the Sub-Games Mode amounts to is a series of 'shooting gallery' minigames built on themes of the main game. You get 4 different areas in which to practice aim and speed, and a fifth for the showdown with Carson. Arcade is really just a chance to choose a chapter or stage you played in Story and practice or relive the thrill. It's a shame Ubi Soft didn't allow for some kind of 2-Player option, even if it had just been in Sub-Game Mode, because the 1-Player experience is fun but has limited replay appeal.