"Still a craptacular game."

One of the more limited games in the Vs series, Hogan’s Alley made literally no change from the home port and the arcade port. Though the game featured the use of the Zapper, back in the day it was important for the gun game to be kid friendly to make some money and hence, you have a game such as this. Although the game didn’t fare all that well on the home systems, the arcade version of this title did pretty well because it was something new and different. Hogan’s Alley is a step back in time for those who really want to see what the beginning was like.

The Game Play

The game play in Hogan’s Alley revolves around shooting the targets as they come up as quickly as possible and then proceed to the next stage. Shooting the wrong targets costs you points, where as not shooting enough targets will cause you to have to run the stage over again! The real enjoyment of the game comes from the two-player option, in which you and a friend can go head to head against each other and have some serious competition.

All in all, the game play doesn’t do much and doesn’t have too much to offer, other than allowing you to get that arcade feel and the carnival experience, but really doesn’t offer much else for you to play. The disappointment of a game like this is that it has potential, but the potential isn’t seen simply because there was no room for a game that featured running around shooting cut out criminals! The unfortunate censorship of games like this at the time were just an example of what the NES was forced to do in some cases to make the almighty buck.

The control of the game is limited to the Zapper. The Zapper is as important in this title as it was in Duck Hunt, so taking care of the light gun is ultimately important to keep the accuracy of the gun dead on! All you have to do is point and shoot at the targets while they are up and the faster you are with the better off you’re going to be. There isn’t a gun calibration option like with today’s light gun games, so if you screwed up your Zapper, then you’re plain out of luck. Once you get used to shooting quickly, you’ll have no problems racing through the rest of the game!

The Visuals

The visuals are vintage NES visuals, revolving around cut out criminals that spin into view. All you have to do is shoot them and the cut out will spin and fall leaving you with more to take out! The criminals on the cut outs aren’t all that well drawn and look more like something out a D. Tracy comic book than they do the criminals in Lethal Enforcers. The backgrounds that you roam through are dark and rather unintrusive but they don’t do much to increase the visuals of the game. Lack of detail is what kills the visuals part of the game and even a die-hard NES fan will see that the imagination factor of the game is set on very low!

The Audio

Audio wise, I can’t make heads or tails of the music other than it is supposed to instill some sort of importance in the game and what you’re doing. The game music really doesn’t have to offer, and the game isn’t sound intensive either, so you don’t have to listen to the game but rather put something in to keep your interests in it. The sound effects are limited to the classic blast of the Zapper and the spinning effect of the target as you take it out! There isn’t much here and this is another example of how little was really put into the early day NES games in terms of what you were given to hear throughout any of the games. Something that would have been nice would have been some decent sounding MIDI music that would instill something of excitement in a game of this type!

The Verdict

Hogan’s Alley is a light gun game that still doesn’t do much to impress me or really make me think highly of it no matter what format its in. With the childish attitude that the game represents, and the lack of visuals and game play ideas, this is a game that has no real place in a serious gamers resume. The tinny sounds and un-impressive audio track that the game has to offer only adds more to the thought that there is always room for improvement and even the average MIDI music would be nice to hear. If you add this in with the fact that you can’t rely on the NES Zapper for anything more than just a few games before the accuracy runs out, then you’ll find that this is a waste of money and a waste of an idea.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/02, Updated 05/26/02