The Last Bounty Hunter



The Last Bounty Hunter is a live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games in 1994. Like almost all of the games produced by the now-defunct company, it was a rail shooter and, like the two installments in the Mad Dog McCree series before it, was set in the Old West. Filmed at Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, it was one of the company's last releases before it was forced to close down. It was also re-released by Digital Leisure in 2002 and was eventually packaged with Fast Draw Showdown by Global VR as an arcade cabinet under the name Six Gun Select.

Plot
The storyline of The Last Bounty Hunter is relatively simple, as is the case with most rail shooters similar to it. The player steps into the shoes of an anonymous bounty hunter who rides into a busy town in order to track down and bring to justice four outlaws whose control over the territory is widespread. Handsome Harry, Nasty Dan, El Loco, The Cactus Kid and their respective gangs are terrorizing the peaceful citizens of the county and it is up to the player to defeat them.

The beginning of the game pits the player against a group of bandits attacking a fort commanded by a United States Army general, Clinton Briggs. With each scenario, the player fights his way to the final enemy, one of the four outlaws, each of whom can either by wounded and apprehended or shot dead. The point, or "cash", bonus is higher if the final boss is taken alive, by means of shooting the gun out of their hand before they can fire. However, this must be done within a small target area, and within a certain amount of time to prevent them from firing first. Once in a while, the action will take a break to a setting which involves a duel with one enemy or a group of men standing in which only one actually takes part in the duel. The player must shoot only after the shooter goes for his gun and not shoot any of the other men. In the meantime, the player must battle their gangs in settings such as a train station, a casino and the scorching heat of the Great Plains. The ending sequence depends on the way in which the criminals were brought to justice. Depending on who was captured alive, they might come back and try to either bribe or shoot you. There are also stages that appear randomly depending on the current stage selected. One example is starting with El Loco causing different scenes for the Handsome Harry or Nasty Dan levels.

Gameplay
The player receives an amount of money for each neutralized outlaw; this money translates into points. Throughout the game, three different weapons can be used: the standard six-shooter, the seemingly more powerful shotgun, and a gun that holds more bullets then the normal six-shooter, which can be found as a bonus at times by shooting oxen skulls, hanging lanterns, and wooden wheels. Showdowns take place at random, though more frequently and with greater diversity than in Mad Dog McCree; one of the gunfighters is Wes Flowers, the star of another American Laser Games release, Fast Draw Showdown.

As in other related games, shooting and reloading are done exclusively via mouse or light gun. Getting hit or firing upon a civilian results in the loss of one of three lives and an appropriate sequence involving a gravedigger. There is one load/save slot and a second player can be introduced at the start of the game.

Acting
Much like that of the earlier Crime Patrol, The Last Bounty Hunter's acting is generally considered average, yet offset by humour. Examples include an overweight sheriff who literally flees at the first hint of trouble, to the point of abandoning the jail during a break-out, and various one-liners by almost all of the characters, such as the Undertaker, whose lines include "Have you considered our layaway plan?" and "Good thing you're such a lousy shot, or we'da never met!", or the an elderly doctor, who has lines such as "I've gotta practice! YOU need to!".