Buck shot.
Remember when arcade games and light gun games used to make console appearances? Wait, you’ve never heard of an arcade? Yes the idea of leaving the house to play video games might seem like an ancient one, but there are still plenty of companies making money off of public video games. One of the biggest of these archaic machines is Big Buck Hunter: a shooting gallery full of enough redneck tropes to fill a moonshine bottle.
Now Big Buck Hunter is coming to consoles, and the same addictive game play that made it so popular in bars and arcades is still here, minus one really big part: the gun peripheral. Playing a game of this type is always a challenge on a controller, and by default, the aiming speed here is simply too fast. After I made some tweaks in the options menu, it was a bit more manageable, but it will never simulate the arcade experience of having the actual gun.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4
Price I’d Pay: $14.99
Outside of control issues though, Big Buck Hunter is surprisingly full of depth and addictiveness. The game is broken down into areas, with each one hosting a series of bucks players have to take down. Much like any good arcade game, headshots are the quickest way, which is weird as the gun is actually a shotgun…which also requires a reload upon every shot. The timing is quick, and adjusting to the lag of a controller took a bit, but once I got it down, things went great.
There are also a host of mini-games scattered throughout, including a moonshine jug one. See, my joke wasn’t completely random. High scores are the highlight here, and the announcer was quick to judge my poor performance. It kept me playing a lot longer than I actually anticipated.
Visually the game is sharp, but nothing groundbreaking. The music is hilarious, totally playing into the stereotype. Banjos are strumming hard here, and scantily clad women plaster the screen before each mission. The game knows the audience it is going for, and never backs down.
Big Buck Hunter Arcade was a lot more fun than I ever anticipated, and was light years beyond any of the Cabela hunting games I have played over the years. It is fast and fun, and takes me back to a time when light gun shooters were all the rage. Now if I could only get a new Virtua Cop, my life would be set.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
