"I'm a cowboy..."

I love Old Westerns. There's nothing too fancy about this movie genre, no cool special effects, no long and drawn out scenes, and nobody suddenly breaks into song. All we have is a town full of honest and hardworking people, a dangerous gunslinging bad guy, and a desperado that's always ready to take him down. Bar fights will ensue, bullets will fly, and we'll usually wind up watching the hero and the villain clash in a rough shootout mixed in a haze of dust and tumbleweeds. And when the guns are out of ammunition and the smoke clears, we'll find that the hero has triumphed yet again, while the villain is lying on the ground with blood seeping out of a few well-placed holes on his body. Then our beloved champion rides off into the sunset, with some unknown destiny awaiting him.

Sounds kind of corny, doesn't it? In real gunfights, the good guy doesn't always live to see the sunset that he's supposed to ride into. Instead, both shooters are constantly on the move, searching for a decent cover and an open shot at their foe. Taking heed of the more realistic approach to the classic Western showdown, Outlaw pits players against each other in a shootout in of simple proportion. You'll play the role of some unnamed gunslinger trying to take out his foe on a dust square patch of land. You don't have any fancy unlockable guns or items. All you have is your handy revolver and your skills as a gunman. Using timing, precision, and a little luck, you can take down the dangerous mad man that's threatening your turf. Even though you keep riddling him with bullets, your adversary will always sit back up, ready for yet another duel. But if you manage to score enough points, you can keep the vagrant down and out for good.

However, killing someone isn't as easy as pulling a trigger. The two of you are stuck in an enclosed area, offering just enough space for you to maneuver around and avoid taking hits. If dodging and shooting weren't hard enough, you'll have to deal with a hefty assortment of obstacles lying in the middle of the battlefield. You'll have to shoot through cacti, covered wagons, and even solid walls to make sure that your bullets make it to the other side of the screen. Sometimes these barriers will be moving up and down the screen, forcing you to readjust your position in hopes of getting a good shot at your enemy. But if you don't feel like spending time and wasting bullets by blowing obstacles, you can always angle your shots, letting them bounce off the walls and into the heart of your foe.

But if you're playing by your lonesome, you won't have to worry about killing off a pixilated fiend. Instead, you can sharpen your skills with a little target practice. While you won't be facing off against some other lone gunman, you'll have to take on a giant bull's-eye that moves up and down along the opposite end of the battlefield. As it hits the walls of the enclosure, a small clock will tick away your chances of shooting it and scoring some points. If trying to get around the irritating obstacles wasn't bad enough, you'll now have to time your shots to near perfection, waiting for the precise moment when the angle of your shot manages to fall in line of the path of your target. And all the while, the bull's-eye will continue to taunt you with its slow and uncomplicated maneuvers. If you can't manage to hit it at least ten times before the timer runs out, you'll have to live with the shame of being outmatched by a non-existent AI.

As this showdown between desperados comes to it's dramatic climax, you'll be too busy to notice the unusual landscape of your shootout. Unlike the bright and dusty streets of the Westerns we all know and love, the town of Outlaw is presented in a wide variety of colors, sharply contrasting the scorching hot flatlands we'd associate with Wild West. At least the two gunslingers are plainly visible, their tan pixels giving enough of an impression of a human body. They even sport some impressive sombreros and keep their non-existent hands by their sides, ready and waiting for the split second to draw and leave each other bleeding. And although the wagons look giant rocks and cacti don't have any painful pointers or store water, the distinct shape of the blocks will leave a lasting impression. Though the game comes without any music and a severely limited array of sound effects, the presentation manages to render the setting reasonably well, letting you use your imagination as the two gunmen duel their lives away.

For a game that was released in 1978, Outlaw still manages to hold its own as a decent game in the Atari library. Though simple in concept, the game offers a fair amount of challenge to any prospective gamer. Once shooting the same baddie gets old, the game throws in a few different obstacles, forcing you to rethink your game plan and still attempt to come out victorious. While we have our Red Dead Revolvers and plenty of other shooting games, Outlaw allows us a primitive view of the basics of the genre. Once you take away the glitz and glamour of today's games, you've still got a desperado and a bandit squaring off in the gunfights of legends. And as the Wild West fades away into historical myths and folklore of American society, Outlaw will remain as one the first games to appreciate that bygone era.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/05, Updated 05/14/07