Shooting the gap

I can’t even believe that I am talking about light gun games in 2019. This was a genre that I grew up with in arcades and to a lesser extent on the original PSOne with Namco’s GunCon. These games are designed to be quarter munchers, audience-driven games that are all about fast-paced action and precision shooting. These days with TVs that display ridiculous color and high resolution it becomes more of an issue to create these types of experiences. The Wii had a decent catalogue, but the lack of accuracy of the Wii remote left much to be desired. Well, here we are as PDP and Mars brings a new light gun to consoles and it holds up decently.

First let’s start with the hardware. The Mars Lightgun comes packed with a camera that synchs up with the TV in an effort to bypass the screen accuracy. This camera reminds me of the original Vision camera from the Xbox 360. It can be adjusted and is designed to be pointed at the TV. It takes up one USB slot and has a long cable so it can be setup across the room. The lightguns then pair up with the camera. The calibration was confusing at first as the game instructed me to pull the trigger to synch, but I actually needed to hit the A button on the controller then pair the gun.

MSRP: $99.99
Platforms: XB1, PS4
Price I’d Pay: $49.99

After that is done I lined up the camera with the crosshairs on the screen and off to the races I went. I did have to do this every time I booted up the game, which is a pain. The guns themselves are well designed with a solid grip and a nice trigger. To reload the barrel has to be cocked back – this kind of sucks. I miss the days of reloading by shooting off-screen. There is also a button on the side of the gun, which was only used in one of the games I played to switch weapons.

There are currently three games that work with this peripheral which they sent us codes to try out. The first is called Voyage of the Dead and as one would imagine, it is a spoof of the classic House of the Dead…except on a boat. My biggest issue with this game was its frame pacing. It felt like it was skipping frames while playing. When it worked, it felt good, but the frame rate ended up causing me to miss shots I clearly thought I had lined up. I played on Xbox One X so I am not sure what was causing the slowdown, but much like fighting and racing games, lightgun games rely on a solid, consistent 60fps which this game clearly missed the mark on.

The second game is called Qubit’s Quest. This is a much different spin on the lightgun game. Instead of just mowing down enemies, the idea here is to clear the screen and get the robot dog to jump. Think of it as a shooting/puzzle game. There are some novel concepts here, but without an onscreen reticule it becomes more complicated than it should be.

The final game is a familiar title that has actually been out a while. Big Buck Hunter Arcade. This game fared better than the other two. It is simple and straightforward. I found the gun worked extremely well for this title. Sure it is mindless, but it sure can be a lot of fun with an actual gun peripheral.

Overall the Mars Lightgun is a novel idea of arcade games of past. The construction is nice, but the game offering is lacking and the setup is more convoluted than it should be. I hope more games drop for this because as of right now it is hard to recommend with one older title and two underwhelming new ones. Still for those that grew up enjoying the genre it is at least a start. Now bring back the House of the Dead and add in functionality and we have a winner on our hands.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.