Hello again. This is TheFadedWarrior with another review. This time I am reviewing Sunset Riders for the Sega Genesis. Sunset Riders has been ported from the Sega Genesis to the Super NES and Arcade systems, so keep in mind that this is ONLY a review on the Genesis port. I hope you enjoy!

My Ratings

1 - TERRIBLE
2 - Really bad
3 - Bad
4 - Below average
5 - Average
6 - Average
7 - Above average, pretty good
8 - Great
9 - Near perfect
10 - Super-Mega-Ultimate

Graphics

Alright, my review will start of with the graphics of this game. The detail isn't exactly amazing, but they are above average for the Sega Genesis. The animation isn't creepy looking (like in the Mortal Kombat series), which is nice I guess. I apologize, but this is honestly all that I can think of to say about the graphics. But don't worry, the rest of the review will have much more detail. I give the graphics a 7.

Sound

Ah, yes, the sound. The music in this game sound pretty good, in my opinion. The tune of the first level can get stuck in your head for awhile, so watch out. The complete OST (official soundtrack) can be found in this Youtube Playlist (link). However, I have 1 minoe complaint. The sounds that are played in the game... are pretty horrible sounding. When you kill an enemy, it sounds like a motorcyclist with a light voice that is heavily into drugs. Yes, a light-voiced motorcyclist on drugs. It really does. I give the sound a 7.

Gameplay and Addictiveness

Mmmh, the easiest and my personal favorite section to describe, the gameplay/addictiveness.  This game is a lot like Contra, but with a Western setting. Every time you get shot, you die, and you have a limited number of lives. So, in Sunset Riders, you can play as 1 of 2 cowboys. The first cowboy you can play as is Billy. Billy carries one of those old-fashioned cowboy pistols. Lame! The second cowboy you can play as, Cormano, on the other hand, has a friggin' shotgun. Awesome! A little tip is that, if/when you play this game, play as Cormano. His shotgun fires a burst of "bullets" that go through objects such as crates.

There are 2 powerups not including 1-ups: The first powerup is Rapid, which is, obviously, a powerup that makes your gun rapidfire. The second powerup is Gun (or something like that) which gives you an extra gun, which doubles the amount of bullets your character shoots. You can also collect coins that increase your score, and a mysterious 8-pointed star, which I have no idea what the purpose of it is.

Guess what? This game is 2-player Co-Op! This is probably one of the best games you can play on Netplay, as it has cooperative gameplay and Sega Genesis Netplay rarely lags. In fact, I found out about Sunset Riders' awesome gameplay when a friend of mine started a session.

With the game being so incredibly fun to play, Sunset Riders is also really addictive. I absolutely love playing this game. Every time I finish playing it for the day, I impatiently wait until the next day to play Sunset Riders. I give the gameplay and addictiveness an impressive 9.

Story

This game doesn't really have that much of a story, but it still sort of has one. Basically, there are 2 cowboys (possibly good friends) that go around their country saving chicks (hot ladies, not baby chickens) and bounty hunting. There are new missions every 2 levels (every single level in the Super NES version). Each second level starts with a "Wanted Poster" with a boss's face on it (e.g. Simon Greedwell wanted poster (link)). Although there isn't much of one, I give the story a 6. I fought with myself between 5 and 6, though.

Depth

There are 7 "pre-stages" and 7 boss stages, resulting in 14 full stages. It's not that long, but it's a little above average. Of course, though, I doubt that very many have made it through to the final level. Finish the depth section then read the difficulty section if you don't understand why I said that. I give the depth a 7.

Difficulty

You know how Contra is a really hard game, right? And you know how near the start of the "Gameplay and Addictiveness" section, I said that this game is a lot like Contra, correct? Well, this game is almost as hard as Contra, too. You start with 3 or 4 lives (possibly more or less depending on the difficulty you select, but I haven't checked), but you can still get 1-ups. Not that I don't like it or anything, but the idea of dying after 1 hit is pretty lame. I can only imagine what they were thinking when they added that feature. So, yeah, this game is pretty hard. I give the difficulty an 8.

Overall

It all comes down to this... My overall opinion on Sunset Riders for the Sega Genesis. To sum it all up, Sunset Riders is a fun western shooter game with fair graphics and great sound. The  game is very fun to play and very addictive. The story is about average, and the game is fairly long, each stage providing great challenge. I love this game, and you should play it and recommend it to everyone you see walking down the sidewalk. Overall, I give this game an amazing 9.0.

Thank you for reading my review. Feel free to criticize.